Protecting Your Cash Cow

Protecting Your Cash CowEvery successful business has a cash cow or cash cows. What are yours? And how are you protecting them? By way of my definition, a cash cow is an asset that produces game-changing revenue. Without cash cows, it is hard to grow any business in a meaningful way.

In the world of ideas, Intellectual Property is a cash cow
Russ Riddle is a member of the National Speakers Association and is the Immediate Past President of the NSA North Texas chapter. He was in town last Saturday delivering a program to the NSA Northwest chapter entitled Corral Your Cash Cow. As an attorney specializing in Intellectual Property, Russ did a marvelous job emphasizing the important things to know about Copyright and Trademark law; and did it in a way that was memorable, entertaining and interesting. Corral Your Cash Cow got me to thinking about expanding the discussion around cash cows and assets.

In the world of business, People are cash cows
If you look at a typical balance sheet, assets listed always include line items for cash, accounts receivable, equipment and intangible assets. Do you remember ever seeing a line item for “cash cow” listed on any balance sheet? Why not you ask? This is a good question for the accountants.

Relying on the law of common sense and breaking down any business to its simplest elements, your most productive groups of employees are your cash cows. They create the products or deliver the services that customers and clients pay for. Without talented teams of individuals producing desired outcomes in an effective manner, businesses simply don’t thrive and grow.

If you want to protect your cash cows, below are a few things to consider
1. Do employees enjoy their work and the people they work with? Because over 70% of employees are disengaged at work (according to a 2014 Gallup Research poll) the odds are not in your company’s favor.
2. Is your company culture serving as an employee attractant or repellent? If you don’t know the answer to this question, you have a HUGE hiring problem.
3. Do you pay your employees enough so that they don’t think about testing the waters elsewhere? According to a recent Puget Sound Business Journal article, over 71% of employees in the Seattle region are looking at other options of employment because pay is an issue to them.

The bottom line is this… Take care of your cash cows and they will take care of you. Ignore this advice at your peril.

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