You too can increase profits without necessarily increasing sales!

How?

The “Profits Leak Detective Newsletter” offers regular tips and strategies to help you identify and plug those leaking profits.

You may never have known you have them.

Subscribe to receive a FREE Case Study on the success of just one strategy.

BONUS free report “7 Clues to a Profit Leak”, valued at $47.

How do you know that you should be looking for leaks?

Are there some clues or symptoms that are telltales saying that a

bit of drilling down into your business might pay some dividends?

Possible leaks could be anywhere.

This report provides 7 clues that should put you on alert for a profit leak.

Be alert - SUBSCRIBE NOW

"Adam, over the past six years, I've had the pleasure of 'bumping into you' on at least three business and marketing related forums. Your contributionsto discussions have always been courteous, astute, incisive and practical,delivered with good humour, and based upon 'real-world' business experience. You are clearly an experienced business professional who actually knows what he is talking about. I wonder if your clients know what a gem they have in you? As one business professional to another, I salute you.

Good Wishes,
John Williamson - The Wealth Coach
www.thewealthcoach.com
www.retaildisplaysecrets.com

+++++++++++++++++++

I just LOVED "7 Clues to a Profits Leak".

Steven Walker - Profit Improvement Advisors
Calgary, Canada

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You will be proud how your protégés are proceeding! We have expanded the business to Katherine and Alice (Tennant is also on the list). T he catering side of the business is far less stressful and is actually profitable, now that we only take the good jobs.
We will never forget the assistance you gave us in re-inventing our business!

Karen Sheldon

Managing Director

Karen Sheldon Catering

Darwin, Australia

+++++++++++++++++++

The chap is Adam Gordon whom I have known for many years. He is a former resident of Darwin having lived here for perhaps 25 years, is an excellent communicator and has a very good appreciation of small business, business plans and all that goes with it. In fact Adam is regarded as a business guru.

Charles Wright, QS Services, Darwin, Australia

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Thanks for the catch-up the other day. It's great to be working with a legend in the small business community.

AJ Kulatunga, BLKMGK ICT

Darwin, Australia

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The 7 Clues is a great.

What I like the most in the Seven Clues report is that it clearly explains that accounting is merely a subset of proper financial management and

that only the business owner can practise financial management. The accountant does the accounting, and in doing so supports the business owner's financial management. And the business owner uses the accountant's information, but relying on the accountant to do full-blown financial management is short-sighted.

The report nicely "grounds" an otherwise complex topic which many business owners are afraid of touching, so they often move ahead in blissful ignorance. The water hose and the soggy soil under the leak makes an excellent and easy-to-comprehend example, upon which the financial management concept is nicely built.

Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur Dynamic Innovations Squad
Personal and Firm-Wide Performance Improvement for Management Consulting Firms

Vancouver, BC Canada

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You have played a very important role in my development in business.

You were there with the right information at the right time, I thank you for that.
By adding the next level of systems, and marketing knowledge that you brought to the table we able to identify our objectives, acknowledge the gaps in our business and put in place the planning so as to achieve those objectives. Within 5 years we achieved 9 of our ten stated objectives. In that same year we won the NT Telstra Small business of the year"

Greg Haigh
Director - Trade Group
Regional And Northern maintenance services
RANms

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Recent newsletters include:

How well do you know your market?
How turning away customers leads to profits
How to create Superior Value
How to win against your competition
Do you need to make changes to your business?
"Our customers are costing us too much!"
Why competition is good news
What makes a web site effective?
Most businesses have one, but...
How to improve your quotations
How to raise prices without losing sales
Is your business resilient?
How to develop a new product in your niche
How big is your profit gap?
How discounting destroyed value
Benchmarking for best practice
From all customers to some customers
How to take the guesswork out of growth
Should your USP be based on logic or emotion?
How to triple your quotation success rate
How to dramatically improve your quotations
How to make more effective decisions?
How to develop your USP
Do you want to make better planning choices?
Are youmaking these mistakes in planning?
How to use SWOT properly
Does your sales conversation balance the scales of justice?
The perils of profitless cash flow!
So what is more important, cash flow or profit?
Are you getting value from your pricing?
Do you report to yourself monthly?
Follow the money trail!
Performance also counts!
Get more bang for your buck!
Without measurement there can be no improvement!
Where would your business be without customers?
Using your monthly report to improve your profits
Just who is your customer?
And what do you know about your customer?
How branding can increase your profits!
Can branding make you more money?
How to balance the value equation
Tilting the balance in your favour
How to pin the tail on the donkey
Are you groping in the dark with your real cost of labour
Mastering core marketing principles
Building a 5P marketing plan
Profit leaking processes
Should you be trying to increase or decrease cash flow
At times it is folly to hasten
5 steps to create your future
What will be the X-Factor in 2009
Lies, damn lies & statistics
How to use a squad profit leak detectives
Confidence leads to action
Increase sales - so easy to say
So you want to know how to increase sales
Is selling a necessary evil?

Small leaks sink great ships

Profit leaks are more than little expenses

The death throes of a business occur when it runs out of cash, struggling and foundering. If business is a bit of a struggle for you, if you find yourself sitting with your head in your hands asking "What's happening, how did I get here?", Ben Franklin's well known quote; "beware of little expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship", might offer some answers.

Small problems can lead to large problems. Just as a little water dripping into the hold of a ship will eventually fill it up and sink the ship, a small business leak can grow bigger and bigger if not plugged. Your ship is getting lower and lower in the water, and the waves seem bigger and bigger until the ship founders.

It's much the same with your business. Even the most innocuous profit leak can lead to losses, straight out of your bank balance. And if those profit leaks accumulate they can lead to the loss of your business. If you have a problem but you don't do anything about it, it will get worse and worse until ultimately your business is foundering. And you call in the receivers.

Profit leaks by definition can be small, but they are more than "little expenses"!

Leaking profitable sales - the previous blog talked about the problems arising when you concentrate on winning new customers while neglecting your current customers, who then turn to your competitors, and take their cash with them. Similarly concentrating on the wrong customers can cause imperceptible but costly sales leaks.

Leaking profit margins - recent Profits Leak Detective newsletters discussed the money left on the table because business owners have been too scared by the competition to price their offerings at what they are really worth, money that would provide "flotation" in dangerous waters. The remedies were also discussed, including the example of a client who increased his charge out rate incrementally, and his bottom line by $25,000.

Leaking direct costs by not including them in your Cost of Sales, and thus in your prices. And not being covered in your price they leak straight out of your nett profit. Simple costs like freight or consumables are often hidden in overhead expenses when they should be recovered in Cost of Sales.

Leaking expenses - small expenses add up. They can derail your budget without you noticing, and before you know it Gross Profits are not enough to cover your expenses, or leave a profit. They may be ever-increasing telephone/internet costs, or repairs and maintenance because equipment or vehicles are kept beyond their economic life.

And that's the point - leaks can come from anywhere in your business. You must be keep a weather eye on all areas.

As my Uncle Frank (Great Uncle actually), a canny Scot, used to say, "Watch your pennies and your pounds will watch themselves". He had a great business ship but after his time the pennies started leaking, the leaks grew, the flotation went, and eventually the ship foundered.

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