Managing profitability is one of your top goals for the year, so make sure you give it the respect – and time – it deserves on your list of priorities. We know expenses can quickly escalate if left unchecked, while fees can mount if they’re simply accepted as the status quo. We can’t very well expect our customers to manage their finances and make the right decisions if we’re not willing to put in that hard work ourselves.

So, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to it.

Expenses

Audit your workflow with the goal of decreasing your expenses by a certain percent (you decide). This includes evaluating any inefficiencies or frictions within your networking, communications, sales and closing processes.

Evaluate the tech tools you currently have at your disposal…but may not be maximizing. Are you spending time, money, staff or energy on something that one of our tools could easily accomplish? You won’t know until you look under the hood of your operation.

Re-examine your allocation structure, including which duties belong to which team members. This ensures you’re not doubling down on staffing, which is redundant, inefficient and costly. You also want to analyze current wages, bonus plans and staffing to ensure you’re maximizing your value in each of these areas.

Profitability

Set a goal to increase your banked capture rate by a certain percentage to ensure realistic revenue and growth.

Aim to reduce and/or eliminate revenue leakage by a certain percentage to instantly improve your profitability numbers. This should include examining costs associated with appraisals, credit, waived fees, etc.

Commit to making sure your branch never operates at a loss. Attempt to reduce your monthly break-even volume by a certain number, and re-evaluate this goal every quarter.