Unearthing New Profit Centers

Customers

There are numerous sources for new profit centers. The first and the one with the lowest cost of acquisition is simply the process that I outlined abovetalking to your customers. By asking them what other products and services they would like to see you offer, the customers can instantly provide you with a new profit center to be constructed . One way to probe this information from the customers is to ask them about some of the other companies with which they do business and what they are buying from them. This is revealing information, and it allows your company to ponder whether or not these customers would purchase those products and services from you instead, if you offered them.

Technology

In AccuCodes industry, as in many other industries, another source of new profit centers comes from emerging technologies. The most recent example of this is Radio Frequency Identification or RFID. Ive been watching this technology for over five years . It has been around since WWII but for a number of reasons has never gained widespread commercial acceptance. Just this year Wal-Mart announced that their top 100 suppliers will be required to place RFID tags on every pallet and box that is shipped to their distribution centers or stores. The sheer volume that this will generate for RFID systems will bring their cost down to the point that they will be more practical for a multitude of commercial applications. Now, AccuCode has officially added this technology to its automated data collection offering, and I believe that five years from now it will be one of our most profitable offerings.

New Markets

Yet another source for new profit centers is new markets. A key tactic for discovering these new markets involves thinking laterally to expand your current customer base. First, look at your existing customer base and the problems that you have solved for them. Then, ask yourself and have your management team consider what other kinds of businesses have similar problems. In order to grow your business, all you have to determine is whether or not you can solve that same problem for the customers.