Quick. Think of any recent news reports that praise sustainable profits. None come to mind? Regretfully, they are few and far between.
We are bombarded with sensationalised media reports that teach us that profit is bad. These negative stories guarantee that if a business makes anything other than a subsistence profit it must be because they have ripped-off customers and employees.
This is simply not true. In some cases the numbers are so big that most of us are simply unable to put them into perspective. So, sadly, nobody does, and profit-makers become sitting ducks for any group that wants to appropriate what others have created through risk and hard work.
Who praises the banks, for example, for securely training and employing tens of thousands of people? For keeping people’s funds safe yet available? For sharing those assets to help their customers buy homes, educate their children, take holidays and build small businesses so the cycle of sustainable assistance can continue?
Or, again, who praises telcos for investing shareholders' money into longer-term infrastructure to enable communication, education, healthcare, business and instantaneous access to family and friends in any part of the world?
Contrary to popular belief, millions of businesses provide fantastic products and services that make our lives as wonderful as they are. To do this, these funds must be invested where they can make a difference – and earn a positive return on investment.
Call me naive, but I can’t even imagine our world without business! Some business executives are ludicrously well paid, and I do mean obscenely so in some cases. However, let’s not throw the baby, or our future, out with the bathwater.
In the real world of a market economy, a business must make a profit to create a sustainable environment for our employees, clients, suppliers and investors, not to mention the tax office.
If your business is not making money and if you, as the owner, have to be there most of the time, then perhaps it’s not a business at all, but a hobby, or a job? What would happen to those around you if you developed a life-threatening illness or had a serious accident? Your business must be profitable and able to run without you if you truly want to help your employees, clients, suppliers and family.
To do this we must recruit great people who want to help us make a winning team – and then provide them with a secure, accountable learning environment. Together we must efficiently produce products and services at a price greater than our costs, to help our clients, employees and suppliers achieve their goals. Finally, the business must earn a fair return on its investment to ensure future opportunities for all.
Cheers to our amazing teams and suppliers who play together to make it all happen; to our great clients who trust us with what they need us to create; and to the profit we deserve and must have to enable it all to continue.
Profit is not a four-letter word. It is essential for every sustainable business. It is essential for your personal investments and superannuation. It is essential for the future of everyone.
[Related: More Industry Insider columns]
David Leach is the chief executive of Look Print and a former GASA president
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