Difference Dollars
© The Bees Knees Photo
I never used to be someone who was motivated by money in my business. Words like “revenue” and “profit margin” were only in my repertoire when talking to my CPA or banker. For me, it was all about building a great place to work and creating a culture where people really felt valued and like they mattered.
As my company grew and I grew along with it, I began to realize how important money is to a business (and obviously right now, it’s really, really important). The truth is, if you want to be a responsible leader and take care of your people, your finances have to be a regular topic of conversation. The problem was, once I understood this, I didn’t know how to make the shift. How do I begin to talk about money in our meetings when for so long, money was never on any agenda ever?
I began by showing our financial reports at team meetings and by sharing our profit goals, but it was never really successful. People worked hard, don’t get me wrong, but they didn’t seem excited. It was like we’d talk about money and then all of a sudden, ZAP. All the passion would be gone from the room.
I began to think deeply about this whole money thing. What is it that money allows us to do? I tried to get to the root of it, the purpose. And I realized that money allows us to make a difference in people's lives. It allows us to pay our people more. It allows us to give them bonuses for their hard work. It allows us to have an emergency fund so that even when faced with challenges (like a pandemic), the company can still take care of its people. It allows us to invest in new projects that will bring in more money to continue to allow us to serve those we lead. And that’s when it dawned on me: I needed to call money something else. I needed a new name for profit. What could I call it?
I started to think of various words, and after a short brainstorm, I had it: Difference Dollars. That is what it is after all, right? Profit is money that allows us to make a difference. So we started using it in conversations, we changed it on our budgets, we changed it on our internal reports. And while going from “profit” to “Difference Dollars” was only a small shift, it catapulted us to a place where our finances became really fun and meaningful to talk about.
I can’t even begin to tell you all the financial leaps my company has made in the last year. It’s one of the biggest reasons we’ve been able to survive over the last two months. We’re tracking KPIs and holding ourselves accountable to financial metrics even amidst this pandemic. Make no mistake: Our people are still the most important part of our business. Everyone knows and supports that. They now also understand that Difference Dollars are what give our company the ability to take care of our people, especially in uncertain times.
Our language matters: Team members instead of employees. Leaders instead of managers. Difference Dollars instead of profit. Try it, and watch the impact these small shifts will make on your organization and everyone in it.
Hope this gets you thinking!
Big hugs,
