The ruthless in ruthless prioritization
November 13, 2023
We’ve spent the past few weeks scrutinizing each line item of our expenses to try and squeeze every last possible cost saving. Over this time, we’ve reached out to every service provider and vendor to renegotiate pricing as we head into 2024. These are never easy or fun conversations to have but they are absolutely necessary as we continue to make our push towards profitability. The years of good will we’ve built up with these providers has paid off as we managed to shave tens of thousands of dollars off current and future expenses that keep our business going. Above all else, we’re putting our focus on securing our future above trying to make sure we don’t offend some of our vendor partners.
Simultaneously, we need to implement this same discipline on the revenue side. The name of the game is building AUM which in turn builds our revenue. Every underwriter we onboard and every borrower that underwriter sponsors must be directly linked to this goal – driving additional revenue that helps our bottom line. This means taking a critical eye toward every one of our clients to determine whether they further this end goal or not. We are not in the business of befriending our clients. We are certainly not in the business of accommodating our clients’ timelines or whims. Every hour we spend with them that is not productive takes away from an hour we could have been spending with an underwriter who pushes our revenue forward. We’ve made the moves on the expense side to have these uncomfortable conversations to put the company’s future first, equally, we should not be afraid of doing the same for our revenue either.
The ruthless in ruthless prioritization means doing what needs to be done in order to put the team and Percent first. Don’t shy away from having that hard conversation, with each other, with a service provider, or with a client. These conversations can be uncomfortable, but I promise they certainly are not unmanageable. As it’s shown, if anything they’ll probably respect you more for it.
