????閱讀關于知名初創企業的報道，每次看到記者大叫“他們甚至都還沒有盈利”時，我都覺得挺逗的。

????我之所以提到記者，是因為正是這幫人讓“致力于盈利永遠是正確的”這一錯誤觀點長盛不衰。此外，我也聽到很多企業家（當然還有很多“正常人”）反復提到這一觀點。

????盈利和增長間存在一種良性的矛盾。要加快增長，企業就得動用當前財務周期的資源，雖然投入這些資源后可能半年、一年都看不到增長。以銷售團隊為例，就很容易說明問題：如果1月份招了6個銷售代表，每人年薪12萬美元，即每月人工成本增加6萬美元，但有可能這些銷售代表4-6個月內都不會達成新的業務。因此，新聘這些銷售代表會使第一季度的凈利潤減少18萬美元。我知道這看來顯而易見，但我敢保證一談到盈利，即使聰明人也會忘了這一點。

????增聘人手并不總是正確的舉措。必須知道新招的人能不能在短期內帶來營收增長，或者能不能獲得足夠廉價的資本來填補損失，直到投資開始顯現效益。

摘要：

????全世界大多數(98%以上的)公司（甚至包括科技初創企業）都應該高度關注盈利。盈利意味著擁有更多的自由度，這不是依賴他人資金時所可想象的。

????? 確實需要融資時，盈利能有助于舉債。(因為很多投資者并不指望打造龐大的商業王國，他們看重投資對象能否實現經營盈利。)

????? 盈利能帶來更多的退出機會。盡管谷歌（Google）和Facebook這樣的公司會進行“人才收購”(至少截至2011年12月是如此)，但許多收購者都不樂意購買不賺錢的公司。他們考慮收購一家公司時，往往會考慮：“我需要多久才能賺回收購成本？”如果你還沒有盈利，你對他們而言就完全是一個燒錢機器。

????? 盈利當然也會讓公司更有能力熬過困難時期。

????不應以盈利為當前要務的人們包括：

????? 有機會或看到機會，有望打造極具可擴展性的業務、互聯網規模企業的人。

????? 能從那些致力于培育互聯網規模企業的投資者那里輕松獲取資本的人。

????我想說的是，

????“如果你真的有一個很宏大的想法，市場中的其他人也會看到這一點，他們會和你競爭。

????如果你具有市場領先地位，那么現在進行融資和投資將能在其他人進入市場時給予你幫助。

????如果你不這樣做，其他人肯定會！”

????I find it amusing when a journalist writes about a prominent startup and decries that, "They're not even profitable!"

????I mention journalists because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is always appropriate, and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many "normals") repeating the same mantra.

????There is a healthy tension between profits and growth. To grow faster, businesses need resources in today's financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people: If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you've taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs, yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. So your Q1 results will be $180,000 less profitable than if you hadn't hired them. I know this seems obvious but I promise you that even smart people forget it when talking about profitability.

????Hiring more people isn't always the right answer. You have to understand whether they're likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off.

Exec Summary:

????Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. Being profitable allows you degrees of freedom you don't have when you rely upon other people's money.

????? You may have leverage when you DO need to fundraise. (There are many investors who are not looking to build enormous businesses who value the fact that you can run a business profitably)

????? It allows you many more exit opportunities. While Google and Facebook will buy "acquihires" (at least as of Dec 2011), many acquirers hate the idea of buying companies that aren't profitable. When they look at buying your company they often think in terms of "how long will it take until I earn back the profits to pay for my acquisition price?" If you're not profitable you're purely a cost center to them.

????? Being profitable certainly makes your company more sustainable in difficult times.

????The characteristics of somebody who should NOT focus on profitability include those who:

????? Have or perceive that they have the opportunity to build an immensely scalable businesses. Internet scale.

????? Have easy access to capital by investors who are committed to building businesses at Interent scale

????As I like to say,

????"If you're really on to an enormous idea then other people in the market are going to spot that and want to compete with you.

????If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market.

????If you don't, somebody else WILL!"