Strategies for Remaining Profitable

There are a variety of key methods and habits to develop in order to keep ones edge and remain profitable for the long term . On the financial side, I have an hour and a half meeting with our Vice President of Finance to discuss monthly financial information. He gives a presentation on the P&L statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. We also have a business coach who is well schooled in finance that we meet with every month as well. His job, among other things, is to study and understand our financials and bring up any red flags he notices.

On the general management side of things, we have a series of meetings wherein we discuss all relevant critical numbers. For example, in our weekly managers meeting, each department head reports their weekly numbers and they are posted on three large whiteboards in our war room. There are probably eighty different metrics we post. We generally discuss each one, look for trends and then determine action items. That meeting lasts about two hours weekly, and they are the most valuable two hours of the entire week. Our entire meeting rhythm is one of the most significant contributors to our companys success. This sort of communication is worked into the regular schedule of the companys structure and vital for growth and profitability through the years .

Louis Meeks is CEO of The Service Source (TSS). TSS is a business to business telemarketing sales organization. We are located in Adrian, Michigan. We have two services we offer our customers. First, we are a reseller for Airborne Express (recently acquired by DHL). In this business, we call small businesses around the country that are ship overnight packages. Our second business is Officeville.com, a stockless nationwide office supply dealer , founded in 2001. The Service Source has been recognized as a 2002 and 2003 as an Inc. 500 Company.