Better Biz Info | A Profit First and Fix This Next Professional Firm 

If you find yourself trapped between stagnating sales, low or nonexistent profit, staff turnover, and unhappy customers, what do you fix first?

Every issue seems urgent — but there’s no way to address them all at once. What you need to do is identify your CURRENT BIGGEST CHALLENGE and address that. Consider looking into Fix This Next.

What is Fix This Next? 

Fix This Next is a tool to help you identify your next biggest problem, or your VITAL NEED in your business, as well as give you strategies to accomplish it. The tool was created by Mike Michalowicz, and has been implemented in thousands of businesses nationwide. 

Check out this quick 3 minute video about the basics of Fix This Next and download a free excerpt of the best-seller Fix This Next book below. 

Identifying Your Vital Need

When faced with multiple crises or challenges in your business, you can feel trapped and overwhelmed, causing you to make rash decisions and seek band-aid solutions. Every issue seems urgent, but there is no way to address them all at once. What do you do? How do you know what to fix first so that you can actually move forward and upward in your business? 

 Mike Michalowicz created what is called the Business Hierarchy of Needs. Based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the BHN helps you identify your next biggest challenge. 

What is the Business Hierarchy of Needs? 

The Business Hierarchy of Needs helps you to identify your next biggest challenge based on 5 core needs. Just like Maslow's hierarchy, you must tend to the bottom tiers before you can move upwards. If a lower tier need is not met, the upper tiers will fall apart and your business cannot survive and thrive. 

Let's learn about each of the 5 core needs. 

Broken Down: The Business Hierarchy of Needs

SALES: The Creation of Cash 

Just like we ourselves can't survive without food and water, you business won't survive very long without inbound cash. This need deals with you understanding what your sales need to be and creating client attraction, conversion, and retention. 

PROFIT: The Creation of Stability 

Massive revenue doesn't mean much if you have no profit leftover or are in major debt. Financial security is as important in your business as it is in your personal life. This need deals with debt eradication and purpose as well as creating growing and permanent profitability in your business (see Profit First). 

ORDER: The Creation of Efficiency

This need deals with making sure that everything in your organization runs like clockwork, no matter who is on your team. Your business should be completely on a single person and fall apart if they are not there (this includes you!). Meeting this need involves process, role, and organizational efficiency. 

IMPACT:The Creation of Transformation 

How is your company moving from transactional to transformational experiences. This need deals with aligning your company mission, vision, and brand with your staff, vendors, and community. 

LEGACY: The Creation of Permanence 

Will your business be able to survive and thrive once you have moved on? This need addresses preparing your business to continue for generations, which requires preparation for a changing workforce and world. 

Check out Mike's (founder of the tool) own explanation of the Business Hierarchy of Needs: 

Get and Give Needs

The hierarchy is split into two levels: Get and Give. 

Get: Sales, Profit, and Order 

Most companies move between these levels throughout their business. These levels are all to do with generating, keeping, and growing cash. It has to do with refining and streamlining processes, retaining and growing profit, and duplicating your ideal customer. They are 'Get" stages because in these levels, you are receiving benefits (aka more cash). 

Give: Legacy and Impact 

You have to get to give. If your business is not making sales, generating profit, or running efficiently, you cannot even begin to think about the impact you are having with your customers or the permanent future of your business. The 'Give' levels involve you taking the success you have generated in the 'Get' stages and using it to create a business that is sustainable and (even more) beneficial to your community. 

Some companies choose to stay within the 'Get' levels, not concerning themselves with the complications of the other two levels. This is ok! There may even be some needs in your business that aren't part of this specific hierarchy. That is also ok! The point of the hierarchy is to identify you vital need and meet it. What that need is doesn't matter as long as you know what it is and are equipped to then meet ot. 

Fix This Next In Your Business

Let us note that the Business Hierarchy of Needs does not represent stages in business growth. Rather than moving in a linear fashion, you will climb up and down the levels in the hierarchy as your business progresses. It does not mean you have failed, it simply means that you are adapting to a changing business and a changing world. 

Like we have said, many business owners get overwhelmed and try to fix everything in their business at once. You can get bogged down in the details and every day grind in your business, which is why an objective, professional eye can be invaluable. 

Using a Certified Fix This Next Advisor will be invaluable to you in identifying and meeting your business's needs. We are specially trained to help you identify your real biggest challenge and give you specific and actionable tools to meet each need in your business. We are prepared to guide you through the process of identifying your need and implementing the strategies and tools to meet it.