October 2002

What is Your Personal Profit Margin?
Why Living By Example Is the Real Bottom Line
By Henry Wolford

Anyone in business knows how to read a financial profit and loss statement. It begins with a listing of all the assets of a company, usually in the form of revenues, accounts receivable, property, and other items. It finishes with a listing of all the liabilities of a company, usually in the form of expenses, accounts payable, and bad debt.

When you total up all the assets and subtract all the liabilities, what is left over is either profit or loss. The next step is to compare these profits or losses to the total revenues to determine the financial profit margin of the business.

Chiropractic is much more than a business. It is a philosophy based on correcting subluxations to improve or restore nervous system function and stimulate innate healing. The chiropractic philosophy, of course, is based on helping people. With that in mind, I ask you: “What is your Personal Profit Margin?”

You don’t know? Bear with me a bit and let’s see if we can figure out a way for you to calculate it.

Assets
Give yourself a point for each person you help. This is helping every person you meet be their best at whatever they do. It may be an office staff member who learns a new piece of computer software. It might be a patient you counsel on healthier eating habits. It could even be showing your child how to throw a curveball.

Give yourself a point for each time you stand on principle. This means doing what is right, even when no one is around to see it. It may mean returning the extra $5 to the clerk who made a mistake when giving you change. It might be a colleague you counsel on an ethical question. It could involve getting behind a community issue or cause.

Give yourself a point for each time you make a personal sacrifice. This means putting the needs of others before yours. It may mean letting your receptionist off early to attend a school function. It might be a patient you give a free treatment to on his or her birthday. It could simply be making yourself available evenings or weekends.

Give yourself bonus points for selfless acts. This is something beyond personal sacrifice. A selfless act is something you do secretly, with no recognition, not even a thank you. Those who receive selfless acts should never know where or from whom they came.

Liabilities
Subtract a point for each person you harm. These could be in either your business or personal life, and they can be intentional or accidental. It may be an emotional hurt like an insult or ignoring the good work of an employee. It might be a physical hurt like pulling an arm or spanking a child.

Subtract a point for each time you set principle aside. These are times the rules are bent in your favor and left rigid for others. It may be playing golf with a colleague and cancelling patient appointments the same afternoon you talked to an employee about the importance of good attendance. It might be blaming another for your mistake simply because you can get away with it.

Subtract a point for each time you put your needs above others. These are tangible things or events which enrich you at the expense of others. It may be buying a new office desk for yourself when what the office needs is a new copier. It might be taking a holiday trip to Hawaii instead of flying to Wyoming to spend time with your mother. Subtract extra points for what’s-in-it-for-me acts. These are acts that on the surface seem generous, but in reality are showcases for your own ego. Choosing to donate to a charity when you know there will be newspaper coverage would be an example. A community thank you on a billboard would be just as bad.

Living By Example
Calculating your Personal Profit Margin is simply a matter of counting up your assets and subtracting your liabilities. However, if you really have to sit down and go through the process, I can tell you that you are already in the red ink.

Those with a positive Personal Profit Margin already know it, and more importantly, they already live it. Choose every minute of every day as a chance to add to your Personal Profit Margin. The rewards are priceless.

Mr. Wolford is a consultant and trainer at Wolford & Associates, 5419 87th St., Lubbock, TX 79424. He can be reached at 806-794-1121; cell phone: 806-543-5215; hcwolford@ sbcglobal.net; or sign on to his website at www. henrywolford.com