What to Do If Your Business Isn't Making Enough Money

Tired of setting big revenue goals and still falling short? In this video, Steve unpacks one of the most common mistakes business leaders make—chasing numbers without a real strategy behind them.

He breaks down why so many companies miss their targets year after year and how to shift from guesswork to confident, strategic execution. If you're ready to make bold moves that actually stick, this video is packed with the insight you need to lead with clarity and hit your goals.

TRANSCRIPT:

Do you set big financial goals for your organization and then as the year kicks off and you go out there and execute, you realize that you are falling short of your financial expectations? If so, don't worry, I've been in this exact position before and I'm going to share with you in this video what I discovered along the way and what you could do about it in order to avoid this common trap.

Now, here's the deal. Strategy execution is broken.

It's broken in many organizations for a variety of reasons, but this is what I discovered in my business years ago. This process that I was doing over and over again, it was insanity. I was repeating it year after year expecting different results and guess what? The same exact thing was happening.

But then I discovered I was not alone. As I work with companies, I realize that oftentimes they're stuck in the same exact trap. So until you break the cycle, you're going to be finding yourself in the same position.

Let me explain. Here's an example of how it goes down for organizations. On the Y-axis here, I have EBITDA in millions of dollars, going from zero to a hundred million.

And then on the X-axis, I have time going from 2018 and beyond. So let's step back in time and let me walk you through an actual case study from a business that I was working with. When I first came into the company, I said, okay, give me all of your strategic plans for the last five years.

Also, I asked for their financial projections. And here's what I found. In 2018, the executive team got together and they said, look, we are not going to repeat the poor performance that we achieved in 2017.

Things are going to be different this year. So they put in place a 3-year plan. And you'll notice here this green line maps out the profit goals that they set for the organization.

So they're down here and they're like, okay, next year, we are going to elevate our game. We're going to achieve higher profits. And then in the following year, we're going to earn even higher profits.

And then the same thing is true in the subsequent year. So this is their 3-year plan. And they put in place what they thought was a strategy, but actually is just a list of a bunch of random initiatives.

It wasn't the cohesive approach that is required to achieve real results. So this is their plan. And then 2018 unfolded and look what happened with actual performance represented by this gray line.

Performance was relatively flat. They did the same exact thing as the year before. And frustrated, they thought, ah, okay, 2019 is going to be completely different.

We're going to change our initiatives. Maybe we'll add more initiatives on. Maybe we need to drive more accountability with our teams.

And that's what they did. And they went out and they set their next year plan where they said, okay, it's going to be different. Let's reestablish these profit targets for the next 3 years and go execute.

And look what happened. Performance improved incrementally. Just slightly.

Slightly up from the year before. Then they did the exact same thing the following year. They set up a 3-year plan.

Performance actually declined because they didn't have that strategy in place to help them to overcome their strategic problem and to respond to the market conditions. And then the same thing repeated over and over again. And this is the trap that most organizations find themselves in.

They set these big, ambitious financial targets but they don't have the cohesive strategy in place that will help them to define their shared aspiration, their market focus and position, their competitive behavior. And the resources that they'll need and the returns that they can expect by pursuing that strategic option. And what happens as the year unfolds, performance doesn't meet expectations, leaders get frustrated, some get fired, some leave the company and it just perpetuates the problem.

And this happens with so many organizations over and over again. You may be nodding your head right now saying, yes, Steve, this is happening within my company. We set these big ambitious goals but then we don't achieve them.

And here's what's happening. Too many companies set bold financial goals but then they take timid strategic moves. In other words, they make these timid moves because they don't have the confidence in their strategy.

Because they know that their strategy process is broken intuitively, right? These are smart, ambitious leaders that I'm working with. But what they're lacking is not necessarily intelligence. It's just an understanding of a better way of doing things.

Strategy is a process. It's not a one-time event where you create a laundry list of things you're going to do within your organization. You have to define where you're going to compete, how you're going to compete and ultimately how you're going to win.

Strategy is a set of interrelated choices you make regarding these components. And once you have a strategy in place, then you create a plan and then you go execute. But you need to have a system for all this.

And this is where most organizations fall short. Another mistake that businesses make is believing that their budget is the strategy. I'm not going to get into it too much here but I'll tell you, the budgeting process is broken for most organizations.

Because it is tied to the annual cycle. In other words, companies will start building out a budget for the following year in the third or fourth quarter. And it usually involves this top-down approach where executives believe by setting ambitious financial targets and then pushing it down onto management.

And somehow, miraculously, they're going to achieve these numbers just because they're in a spreadsheet. So, the budgeting process is so broken. Instead, it's all about creating these rolling financial forecasts and tying it back to the strategy.

It's not the strategy itself. And that's where I realized there's this major gap in the world of business. And that's why I started Coltivar over a decade ago.

Because these leaders would put in place so-called strategies which were really just glorified marketing plans. And they'd push them down to their teams and they'd have a bunch of jargon on them like, hey, we're going to be the best. And here are our values, integrity, honesty, trust.

And they would say, okay, go execute the strategy. But the strategies were not really strategies and they were insufficient. And oftentimes, they're just a list of initiatives.

But it wasn't a cohesive set of choices. And then the finance teams would build these budgets and say, okay, here are your targets. Go hit them.

And everybody in between would be absolutely confused because there is no clarity, alignment, accountability. And as a result, performance was flat. So, don't fall into this trap.

You can go to Coltivar right now and for free. You can take the Million Dollar Strategy Blueprint course. And I go into a lot more detail explaining how this entire process works.

I've prepared this for you because my goal is to get you to a million dollars in annual profit and then beyond. So, that's my gift to you. Just go there.

It's free. There's no gimmicks. Nothing you need to sign up for.

You can literally go to the website and hit play and start taking the course right now. Before you sign off, I want to hear from you. If this makes sense, can I get a yes in the comments box? Also, if you have other feedback, drop it below in the comments box and I'll be sure to respond.

And until next episode, take care of yourself. Cheers.