Learned about profit fade tracking at a networking breakfast last Tuesday

Some guy from a manufacturing company was talking about how they nearly missed a 15% margin erosion because they only looked at gross profit at the end of the quarter. He said they started checking profit fade weekly on each job and it saved them about $40k in 6 months. I run a small service business and it made me wonder how much I'm losing by not tracking costs closer on each job. Anyone here do weekly profit checks or just wait for the monthly report?

3 comments

3 Comments

abby_carr5727m ago

Yeah I'm the kind of person who looks at my numbers once and goes "looks fine" then panics three months later when I'm broke. Weekly checks sound terrifying but probably good for me.

hayden_martin2927m ago

looks fine" is exactly where i get caught too, @abby_carr57. but here's something nobody's talking about - weekly checks actually make you spend LESS time on them overall because you catch small stuff before it snowballs. it's like changing your oil vs waiting for the engine to seize. i started doing a quick 5 minute sunday night check and it took maybe 3 weeks before it became a habit. now i actually look forward to it because my bills don't hit me like a brick wall anymore. the real trick is making it boring and consistent instead of a big scary event every few months.

david7015h ago

Notice how most people only check things when they're already in trouble, not before.

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