Excellence is achieved through hard work. Hard work is the result of dedication and practice. There is a theory out there called the “deliberate practice” theory which states that greatness partially comes from a deliberate practice routine. A routine you continually practice to stay abreast of your customer’s needs and know how support them, as well as keeping a pulse on how you are different from your competition and in turn communicating that with your customers effectively.

Want a highly profitable business? This will not take a reduction in overhead or man power in order to decrease expenses but rather an increase in service that will result in increased profitability. Ask yourself, what do you do well? How has your business changed in the past five years? Has the way you conduct business changed? Have you gone after new business in that time? The more you understand how you have changed, what has worked and what hasn’t, the more you will discover profitable niches and success.

For example, a business owner I know recently changed their business model. In doing so, they had to let go some old accounts, which reduced their annual sales level. Their previous business model included servicing high volume accounts, which involved many transactions, disputes and write-offs. They decided that this type of business was not in the best interest of the company and dropped it. Now they are making more money with fewer sales and have a lot less hassle. Profit margins are up and so is their spirit.

Another method to increase profitability is to decrease risk. History has shown that companies who take risk for granted will eventually be overburdened by it and incur significant loss. Fortune magazine cited the top ten reasons businesses fail in their May 27, 2002 edition, with two main reasons being “softened by success” and “overdosing on risk.” Do you remember a few years back the off balance sheet risk with Lucent and Cisco? Their write-offs amounted to hundreds of millions and had a huge impact on each company changing the way they do business today. Analyze your business model. Do you have long contract terms limiting your cash flow? Is your business heavily influenced by one particular sector? Avoiding risk may not be a priority for you but it can help you pin-point exposures that would negatively impact your company? As we all know, every company has one.

Your financial prosperity is an important variable in the complicated equation that is your business. To keep improving your profitability you must closely analyze your margins, know what you do well, avoid what you do not do well and study your corporate history to reveal unrealized opportunities. It is through constant improvement, hard work and dedication that you will achieve Excellence, and with it you will profit beyond your imagination.