Money, in and of itself, is rarely the true motivation for entrepreneurs. It’s what you can do with money that truly motivates people. For some, money equals financial freedom—the ability to do what you want to do, when you want to do it. Whether it’s supporting your family, your community, your church—whatever, money enables you to do so. To others, money equals time and the resulting freedom to indulge in the things you really love doing.

What you do with your money is your choice. However, you must first earn the money, which means you must create profits.

There are five profit zones that agency owners and managers should actively manage. All too often, I see people looking only at their bottom line. Very few break it down to see what is actually impacting their profits.

Profit zone #1: Accounts

Never allow profitable accounts to subsidize unprofitable accounts.

Here the goal is very simple: Every account must create a profit.

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