The Woman Working for a Monthly Net Profit of R2,000

When someone tells me they have phenomenal turnover, a monthly net profit of R2,000 isn't the number I expect to find at the bottom of the page. Yet that's exactly what happened in one of my client meetings.

She arrived feeling proud of what she had built, and she should have been. Her business was busy, her diary was full, her clients loved her work, and the sales kept coming in. From the outside, everything looked like a success. As we opened her QuickBooks file together and worked through the numbers, something immediately stood out. I looked at her and said,

"Darling, after everything is paid, your business is only making a monthly net profit of R2,000."

She didn't argue. She simply stared at me in silence. Not because she disagreed, but because nobody had ever shown her how to look at her business that way before. Like many business owners, she knew her turnover. She knew what she invoiced every month. What she had never focused on was her monthly net profit – what was actually left after all the business expenses had been paid.

That conversation has stayed with me because I see versions of it far more often than people realise. We celebrate turnover because it's visible. We celebrate being busy because it feels like success. But turnover only tells you how much money came into your business. It doesn't tell you how much stayed.

One of the questions I now ask many clients is, "Is your business paying you?" It's a simple question, but it's often the one that changes everything.

The good news was that there was nothing wrong with her business. Her clients valued her work, she had built an excellent reputation, and demand wasn't the problem. The problem was that her pricing wasn't reflecting the true cost of delivering her service or the value of her experience. Together, we worked through a simple markup exercise. We didn't make dramatic changes or completely overhaul her pricing. We simply adjusted it so that it reflected reality. Her clients accepted the changes without hesitation, and within a couple of months the business was generating significantly more profit without her working longer hours or finding more customers.

Moments like these remind me why I love what I do. It's never really about the math. It's about the story the numbers are telling. Sometimes they confirm that you're on the right track. Sometimes they quietly reveal that you've been working incredibly hard without rewarding yourself along the way. The numbers aren't there to judge you. They're there to help you make better decisions.

This week, ask yourself three simple questions:

1. Do I know what my business's monthly net profit was last month?

2. Am I paying myself fairly for the value I provide?

3. Is my pricing based on facts or assumptions? If you're not sure, that's okay. Clarity always comes before confidence.

I've created a simple markup template that helps business owners understand what their numbers are really saying. Simply email "MARKUP" to info@bullivant.co.za, or get in touch I'll happily send it to you.

Because every successful business should include the person who worked so hard to build it.