The Performance Story: Profit That Stays With You
- James C Foo Leong
- May 12
- 2 min read
Protecting the Profit That Stays With You
A friend once described a year as “successful on paper.”
She doubled her revenue. Hired help. Took on more clients.
But by year-end?
She was exhausted. And broke.
“Honestly,” she said, “I don’t know where the money went.”
It's as if she’d poured her energy into $100 of sales.
But only $20 stayed with her.
The profit number is telling you a story.
Are you listening?
It tells a story about performance.
Revenue inflow is insufficient,
you need profit that stays with you.
In Chapter 4 of Once Upon a Balance Sheet,
we shift from the strength story of the balance sheet
to the performance story of the income statement.
What the Income Statement Reveals
How your revenue is distributed across costs and expenses
What your real margin story looks like
Where your break-even line quietly sits
And how much is truly left at the end
The Questions That Matter
They help you ask:
Is this effort worth it?
Is my business structure supporting me, or draining me?
Am I keeping enough of what I’ve earned?
Finding the Leak
You may not control your top line.
Markets shift. Seasons change.
But you do control what leaks out.
Every business has a leak.
The question is:
Do you know where yours is?
Protecting What Stays
Because once you understand your performance story,
you stop chasing volume and start protecting value.
You worked hard for $100 in sales.
Now the real question is—
How much of it are you keeping?
James
The Financial Storyteller
Ready to turn financial confusion into clarity?
👉 If Once Upon a Balance Sheet resonates with you, we can change the way you see numbers.
