Improving Profit
Using Contribution Metrics to Boost the Bottom Line

Authors: Keith N. Cleland



Utilizing 21 case studies, and focusing on two key levers that can be used to analyze any business--financial contribution and units of activity--Improving Profit shows how to measure contributions to profit in real time. These techniques help you understand what is working to generate profit, and what is not.

Business of all sizes have a problem: How do you know—in real time—whether you are earning the profit you need to grow or even just stay in business? And which products or services are doing the “heavy lifting” in contributing to profit? Financial statements tell only part of the story. They are backward looking, for one thing, and they generally show results only in the aggregate. Worse, they never seem to reflect the hard work you’re doing on a daily basis. As one manager said, “If I’m adding 25% profit to every job, why am I getting barely 5% net profit at the end of the year?”

Improving Profit: Using Contribution Metrics to Boost the Bottom Line solves this dilemma. As this book shows, Contribution-Based Activity (CBA) measures focus on two key levers that are fundamental to the operation of any business: financial contribution and units of activity. Knowing how to use these levers gets your company off the treadmill and on your way to stellar profitability. And as the 21 case studies show, CBA is surprisingly easy to apply to businesses of all types and all sizes.

What is “financial contribution”? Simply the amount above and beyond the cost of goods or materials sold that contributes to covering overhead and creating profit. As entrepreneur, business consultant, and professor Keith Cleland shows, few managers actually know the financial contribution their products and services make, nor how to amplify that contribution by  incremental adjustments to one or both levers. As you’ll learn, the financial tool Cleland created, TARI (Target Average Rate Index), provides insight into each product’s value. You’ll not only learn which products are contributing the most to the bottom line, but how to unlock the profit potential in run-of-the-mill products or services. Improving Profit will help you:

• Restore and boost profit levels for your entire operation
• Relate your daily efforts to a transaction's actual profitability
• Focus on the two key performance indicators that can help you identify and solve problems affecting finance and productivity
• Help everyone in the company—from CEO to janitor—understand how their activities help or hinder the company’s fortunes
• Make effective financial decisions

If you’ve ever wondered why your results don’t match your hard work, hopes, and dreams, read this book. As the case studies make clear, identifying and applying TARI results in a significant—and often dramatic—boost to the bottom-line.  

Table of contents (28 chapters)

Front Matter

Background to Contribution-Based Activity (CBA)

Kitchen Utensil Manufacturer Taken to the Cleaners

Printing Business Multiplies Net Profit by 500%

Furniture Manufacturer Climbs Out of the Red

Contractor Overcomes Competition to Make a Profit

Horticultural Equipment Proprietor’s Moment of Truth

Wholesaler Nets $2.5M in 10+ Months

Jeweler’s Changed Focus Turns Red into Black

Upmarket Café Learns How to Stay on Track

Diesel Repair Shop Rescued from Sand-Up-Hill Country

Garment Maker Multiplies Net Profit by 700%

Switchboard Manufacturer Climbs into the Black

Baker Identifies W here the Rubber Meets the Road

Architectural Practice Eradicates a Malignant Cancer

Accounting Firm Wins by Losing a Third of Its Fees

Legal Firm Transfers Productivity to the Bottom Line

Contractor Increases Strike Rate to 1 in 4

Hot Bread Baker Discovers More to Bread than Flour

Window Manufacturer’s Flawed Foundation

Multi-Home Contractor Discovers a New Way Home

Award-Winning Hairdressing Salon Cuts Its Way Out of Bankruptcy

Multi-Department Store Whitewashes the Past

14 Businesses Explore CBA/TARI

Questions Answered

Fast-Track Problem Resolution Guide

Definition of Terms

The Business Wheel

Epilogue: Why Contribution Metrics?

Back Matter

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