When things are not as they appear

When Dave and I were at White Sands National Park, we walked the dunes early in the morning.

I think the temperature was in the mid 40’s and climbing rapidly under the desert sun.

By the time we left in the late morning, it was already in the 70s.

As I walked barefoot in the white sand, the landscape looked like hills of snow.

It was beautiful as the sunlight would catch a crystal and reflect.

On several occasions I caught myself thinking, “I must be careful, this could be slick.”

My survivor brain was equating the glistening sand with the more familiar snowy/icy hills as they would exist in an Arkansas winter.

Each time I caught myself in this thought, I would chuckle at my silly brain!

How often does our survival brain kick in and we are not even aware?

Since our brain is great at conserving energy, it is great at making use of patterns.

It really likes when we just repeat what we always do.

You’re likely looking at your business in the “same old way”.

And while that is energy efficient for your brain, it may be tricking you into not seeing new developments.

For example, when you open your financials to review the past month’s performance, do you quickly scan to see if they match your expectations?

Is the revenue approximately what your Shopify or Amazon dashboards said?

Do your bank accounts on the balance sheet line up with your last look online?

We all do this quick check for variance, but what you may be missing are longer term, gradual trends.

For example, overtime, what are the fees as a percentage of revenue month by month?

Look back to the same month the prior year, have they changed much?

If so, what is causing the increase or the decrease?

If you made a change to packaging to get a lower rate, is that reflected or is it slowly creeping up and eating your margin.

The way to keep our survival brain in buckled up in the back seat is to get curious.

Be an anthropologist, digging into your books and seeing what stories they tell about your business.

Or maybe you’re a private investigator looking for a “smoking gun.”

While it may seem silly, one of the best ways to put our survival brain away is to be creative and play.

That uses the problem solving, creative aspect of your brain.

If you need a brain boost, talk to yourself in your best Sherlock Holmes accent and get to solving the financial crime of the century.

Try taking our Ecommerce Business Performance Assessment and start digging in your lowest scoring area.

If you need a partner in your investigation,Your Profit Team is here to help!

Cyndi