Your Personal Independence Day

Independence Day means so many things to different people. I spent yesterday in the green mountains of Vermont, reading by a river, thinking, "This is the life." I felt happy, successful, and free.

Knowing me, you know my mind started to wander. Is this what comes from having a profitable business? Yes, I think so.

Your mediation practice is not simply a business. It's a vehicle that enables you to do many things that are important to you. So, here's my secret to building a profitable ADR practice. Defining profit is half way to being profitable.

First, let's look at the financial definition of profit. Here are some definitions I found on the Web.

• The basic incentive for operating a business in capitalism; it consists of the amount of money left over after all costs are paid.
  www.economicadventure.org/teachers/glossary_lowell.cfm
  
  
  
• One of the commonly encountered instance of Profit is the value that is left over from any ongoing enterprise or business or business operations after costs are accounted for. In accounting, this is usually measured in monetary terms. In economics, profit is most often measured differently, since costs include opportunity costs. In economics profit after the opportunity costs is often termed as the Economic Value Added or EVA.
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit
  
  
  
  
• What is left over for the owners of a business after all expenses have been deducted from the revenues of a firm. Gross profit is the profit before corporate income taxes. Net profit is the final profit of the firm after taxes have been paid.
  www.geoshares.com/glossary.htm
  

Pretty dry stuff, huh. So, let's look again from a different perspective. Here are a few broader definitions of profit.

• derive a benefit from; "She profited from his vast experience"
  
  
  
• the advantageous quality of being beneficial

Now, things get exciting. There's a greater range of options for success and profit. Ask yourself what profitable means to you in terms of non-financial benefits. If you achieve those goals, you'll be profitable.

For example, my ADR practice enables me to help other people live more satisfying lives. It also offers me the opportunities to learn something new everyday. More often than not I meet interesting people who have lives and professions that are different than my own. And, my practice allows me to travel near and far. It's a profitable business to me for all those reason (and I make money, too).

Let me hear from you....how do you define profitable??

Ciao, Dina