Busy Does Not Mean Profitable | Jane Parmel

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Busy Does Not Mean Profitable | Jane Parmel
Money On The Table

In this episode of The Right Room, Celeste DeCamps turns the spotlight on co-host Jane Parmel, a profit strategist who helps business owners uncover where money is leaking, where pricing is off, and where growth is creating more stress instead of more profit. Jane shares how she works with businesses to improve cost structure, operations, pricing, and customer experience so they can keep more of what they earn and build a business that actually supports their life.

Jane explains the difference between revenue and profit and why so many owners confuse being busy with being successful. She uses examples from restaurants and hospitality to show how vendor negotiations, pricing adjustments, recurring customer experiences, and perceived value can dramatically improve the bottom line. Her message is simple: if your business is consuming your life but not building wealth, freedom, or stability, something in the system needs to change.

This episode is about taking off the blinders, looking honestly at what is working and what is not, and getting strategic support before growth turns into exhaustion.

What You’ll Learn:
✅ What a profit strategist actually does
✅ Why revenue and profit are not the same thing
✅ How to tell if your business is busy but not truly successful
✅ Where to look first for hidden profit opportunities
✅ How cost cuts and price increases can compound together
✅ Why perceived value matters more than giving discounts
✅ How Jane helps businesses improve customer experience and retention
✅ Why emotionally attached owners often miss what needs fixing

🛎️Room Service:
1. Take out a sheet of paper and make a pros and cons list for your business.
Write down:
- what is truly working
- what is draining you
- where the bottlenecks are
- what is making money
- what is costing you time, energy, or profit

Do not type it. Write it. Jane’s advice is that once you actually see it on paper, you can stop guessing and start deciding what needs to change next.

About Our Guest:
Jane Parmel is a profit strategist who helps business owners improve profitability by identifying inefficiencies in operations, pricing, vendor relationships, and customer experience. She works with service-based businesses to uncover money left on the table and create practical strategies that support stronger growth, better margins, and more freedom for the owner.

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Estimated Timestamps:
00:00 Intro and why this episode is all about Jane
01:10 What a profit strategist actually does
03:30 The three questions that reveal whether a business is truly profitable
06:20 Revenue versus profit and why owners confuse the two
09:10 Restaurant example: busy growth that increased costs instead of profit
13:40 How vendor negotiations and pricing changes create hidden margin
18:10 Why retention and recurring customers matter more than constant acquisition
21:30 Valentine’s Day strategy: discounting versus perceived value
27:10 The balloon business lesson on perceived value
30:20 Why owners need an outside advisor to see clearly
34:00 Room Service: make a handwritten pros and cons list
37:10 What being in the right room means to Jane
40:00 Final reflections and wrap-up

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

To be in the balloon business, you used to sell a balloon on a string for a dollar, sometimes 75 cents. But as soon as you put one balloon inside the other balloon, all of a sudden you could charge three dollars for that same balloon. And everybody looks at me and goes, why? Because as I'm inflating the balloons, people are amazed that I'm not breaking them. I'm not doing how did you do that? That's what we used to get all the time. It's perceived value. I can do something you can't do.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Hi. Welcome to the right room.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

My name is Celeste Camps. And I'm Jane Parmel, and this episode's going to be all about us. All about me.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Well, it's been, we've had some great guests on, and we've been getting questions though about what exactly we do. So we thought, hey, let's answer that today.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah. What is it that we do?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

What is it we do? Not really sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Um it reminds me of that line from that Greek movie, Young Frankenstein. What is it you do do? Come on, I think it's funny. Anyway, all right, I'll be serious. I hate being serious.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Well, Jane Parmell is a profit strategist. And I'm sure right now you're sitting at home going, What is that?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

What is that, Jane? What is that? It is a profit strategist. Profit strategist.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Well, let's put it in simple terms. If you're in business and you're making money, great. But where I come in is the question of are you making money? Where are you making money? And how is it breaking down for you? Meaning a lot of people are busy, crazy busy with their businesses. They don't know, you know, they they'll they'll hit me with classic lines like, I don't know where to turn, I can't take a day off, um, my my staff is going crazy. Where oh my god, we're so busy. And then I ask a couple of questions. Um your retirement fund is completely full. You you've you've maxed out all your retirement accounts, and they're like, oh hell no. All right, well, let me ask you this. Uh you're busy like crazy, you're making money hand over fist. Um your children's education. Is that ready? Is that all paid for? Well, my kid's only eight, you know. Um well, there's time for that. And uh, no, I don't have enough to put away, really. Okay, and then my last question is this when was the last vacation you took? And they go, I just told you I'm busy like crazy. How can I go on vacation? That is my perfect ideal client. Here's why. If you had answered me yes, the retirement fund is completely funded, the education fund completely funded, and I take six to eight weeks of vacation a year, some with my wife or husband, some with my kids, some with my extended family, and I pick up the whole tab, I would say to you, great, let me ask you, I would love to have you on my podcast as as a as a guest because you have the secret that a lot of people don't. But when you can't answer those questions, it's a question of processes, operations, and what you're doing efficiently in your business. So people get really like um, I don't know if they get more confused with that in the answer, or or you know, just like tell me a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yeah, tell me, Ashley, give us one story because I know you have a lot. Oh, because I know that you've been helping a lot of people find money on the table. And I will tell you, Jane has helped me do just that as well. It's very interesting the process that she has, but you can really walk into any business, give you a solid assessment, and then give you a step-by-step guide on what to do to become more profitable. But I know that stories have a lot more impact. Can you walk us through a customer that you were able to help that they finally saw the light?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Sure, yeah, definitely. I mean, again, we gotta we gotta lay the foundation of the story. There's a difference between revenue and profit. So I had a client that's in the restaurant industry, and they were very, very busy, going back to what I originally said. Extremely busy. They had people coming in left and right. And the problem was when I sat down and talked to them, we so so in our onboarding process, we come in and we talk to you. The first thing we do is we say, listen, tell us what what's working, and then we ask you to tell us what you think is not working and where you think their improvement could be hiding. And then we also ask about what goals you have. So let's say in six months, where do you want to be? Where does it where do you want the business to be? In a year, in two years. So, that all being said, this person that was in the restaurant business, again, crazy busy, didn't barely had time to meet with me, but sat and said, you know, we have a great social media presence. This is working. We send out um, you know, a post each week and we're engaging new customers left and right. I said, that's great. And unfortunately, one of the things they cited was because they're so busy, they had to hire more staff. They had to hire more staff, they had to train the staff. And it takes a little bit of time, you know, in the restaurant, you'll shadow somebody and you'll you'll have that that maybe a week or two where they're not quite yet ready to take their own tables or different things like that. So there was an increase in spend in the employees, and then there was an increase in spend in the um in the products. So they needed to buy more fruit and more vegetables, more pasta, and more this and more that. So now instead of all that revenue coming in and they see more money in their hands at the end of the day, all they started seeing was their bills go up and the payroll go up. And this is where we come in and we say, okay, listen, you're doing something great. It's giving you the benefit of having this revenue come in. But now we have to see how that's going to wash out so that you actually keep more of that in your pocket. So the first thing we do is we look at their costs. The two easiest places to look are your costs and what you're charging. So we go over their cost structure, we pull their bills, we speak to them, we speak to their vendors, and we see if we can renegotiate better terms. Sometimes it's free delivery, sometimes it's um longer terms, sometimes it's shorter terms without interest. Um, it all depends. We can usually save anywhere between three and eight percent in their total revenue right then and there, which is significant. When you're talking about, you know, a half a million, a million, two million dollars, it's significant. Then we look at their pricing structure. Listen, sometimes you don't take those invoices and really see that the tomatoes went up three dollars a case, and that affects your bottom line. So we're always concentrating on the bottom line and what you keep. So we look and say we go back to the vendors again and say, can we renegotiate quantities? And maybe the quantity can change. So we buy a little bit more, we spend a little bit less by buying a little bit more, and then we look at our price structure so that we see if maybe we need to raise the price of everything that has a tomato base in it. Maybe we need to, maybe you're not charging enough on the alcohol that you're serving. Maybe you're not charging enough on the vegetables that you're serving. Maybe you can cut back on another place, or we also look at the way you're getting people in, events, what you're doing for them once they're there, experiences. Now everything in dining is an experience. So we look to see what you're doing where. Um then we can translate that into compounded growth. So it may be 3% in the cost cutting, it may be 4% by raising your prices, which I know nobody ever wants to do because they're afraid. But here's the secret: you could raise your prices 10%. Nobody would notice. It's a dollar to a dollar 10. It's not that big a deal. But you could do those kind of things. And then we see where it goes. It compounds the 3% in one spot, 4% in another spot, and maybe let's say 3% in another spot. It's not 10% compounded growth, it's more like 20 to 25% because each section helps the next section grow. So, bottom line is your bottom line actually looks healthier. Yes, you're bringing in more money, but now your expenses are lower, your prices may be a little bit raised, and you can actually give people a better experience so that you this is what we did with this restaurant. They gave them experiences and they actually came back, not maybe not spent as too much or a lot, but they came back a second time during the week. And if there was another experience later in the week or on the weekend, they came back again. So we were keeping the customers that we already had as opposed to just going for the new ones. So you know what they say. It's easier. What's the saying? It's easier to keep uh an old customer than it is to get a new one. You spend less energy because they already know what you do. So we work on all of that to help you retain, get recurring revenue, do different things to keep everybody engaged. It works with restaurants, it works with um hotels and other inns and things we've worked with, bars especially. Um, I like working with any service-based businesses. So, you know, there's a whole plethora of those that even support restaurants and hospitality, so and weddings and all those things. So that's what we do. And and and the restaurant, I mean, thank God that ref that one restaurant that we worked with is doing gangbusters now because they've been able to manage other things. And the neatest thing about what we do, we give you the strategies, we can work with you. We can work, you know, we can just give it to you and you could go have at it with your staff. That's fine. And that doesn't cost you anything with us. But if you want us to work with you, because you're having trouble implementing, maybe you don't have a big enough staff, we can do it with you, we can do it alongside you. Or we can do it all for you. And that's a that's a totally different animal because sometimes people just say, you know what? If you know how to do it, you do it. But the nice part is when we can show someone how to do it, they can take those strategies and repeat them over and over and over again. Different businesses, different segments of the business, or from year to year. So, you know, you do a 12-month strategies or 12 strategies in in one month throughout the year, do it again next year, and you'll have maybe not as big a growth, but you'll have growth again.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I think also what's fascinating about what you do is the strategy. And I know that there was a strategy that you worked with, and you showed an example of that of two different restaurants. They were both celebrating Valentine's Day, and yet they both had a different approach about how they were going to price that event. And I thought this was such a great example, especially when you have people that have said, I can't possibly raise my prices, but you came up with such a fun strategy. Would it be okay? Would you mind talking about that now that I'm pretty much fun? But um, I just thought it was uh such a great example of how the pricing structure helped one business over the other.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Right. So there were two restaurants that we had worked with that they were literally on the same block because we we are in New York and Lord knows we have restaurants all plenty in a lot of different areas. So there were two restaurants, ironically, fee doing the same cuisine. Um, one said to me, Well, listen, you know, we we need to knock it out of the park for Valentine's Day. The other one said, Yeah, we need to be busy on Valentine's Day. Okay, so what can we do to entice former customers, new customers to come in? So the first guy goes, Well, you know what? He says, I'm gonna give a percentage off. So, like if they come in and I'm gonna just give them 10% off. And I said, You know, you really don't want to do that. And he said, Why? He says, It'll be, you know, it'll be a pull-in to we'll get people right off the street. We could put a sign out. I said, I don't think that giving lessening the value of what you're giving is is the best thing to is the best way to go. No, no, no, no, no. I'm telling you, we've done it before, he said, and they did it. Okay. The custom, the customer, my customer up the block, said, I don't want to give, I'm not giving anything away. I said, Okay, how about this? We change the way we look at the way we're giving things. So he says, What do you mean? I said, There's something that I was taught in the balloon industry called perceived value. So I always say this to every client I have, or I'm giving away something that the guy down the block isn't. So the other, my client, my my second client, turned around and said, How do I translate that into restaurant? I said, Easy. You're going to give them a free dessert when they come in. He goes, That's going to cost me money. I said, I understand that, but watch this. And what we did was we figured out um a nice looking perceived value. I mean, it was it was a uh chocolate, what do they call those? A molten chocolate cake with two or three strawberries around it with a little dollop of whipped cream. When it came right down to it, it cost two dollars to make them en masse. So I said, you're giving them two dollars. So he said, Really? I said, yes, but it's a sweetheart Valentine's surprise dessert, blah, blah, blah, whatever. You come out with the little cover on it, you bring it over, they'll be so thrilled. Well, that's sorry about that. They'll be so thrilled that that'll be the the the differentiator for you. So he's like, You think that's gonna work? Yeah. So what we did was we charged, um, I think it was $40. No, it was $40 a person for two people. Valentine's Day, everybody's a two. It's it's amateur night, everybody's out. They did that. And when they started to promote the secret Valentine's special, whatever they called it, the decadent surprise dessert, they watched as the number of reservations increased. It almost doubled from the year before. The problem with the $40 a head is it was a prefix menu. But what they did was they also said if you'd like a bottle of wine or you'd like this, they gave it to them at a reduced rate, not very much, but like maybe a dollar off, or they just, you know, had it available. They had a different menu available if you wanted add-ons. And here's the thing: once you have somebody in the seats, they're there. They're waiting for that dessert, they're gonna have an extra drink, they're gonna have this, they're gonna have that. Their actual um uh bill, individual tech tickets that night increased, not the $40 a person. Most of them averaged $65 to $70 a person, and they gave away $2. Now the other guy was giving 10% off. You do the math. Even if he's only getting $40 a person, he's already lost eight dollars at that 10% on the two people. You lost two, and you gained whatever else they ate, drank, or brought home. So it actually, there's strategies behind it, there's things that we can do, there's different ways to tweak the offers that you give, giving people more of a perceived value than they're actually getting that's actually costing you that they don't know about, but they're more than willing to pay. I was even reading something about a coffee shop today that doesn't charge for their coffee. Zero. Don't charge. They just give it away. Why? Because when was the last time you went into a coffee shop, right? And just got the coffee. Dunkin' Donuts, right? They don't just sell donuts, they sell coffee. They could give you the coffee, you'd still buy the donut or the breakfast sandwich or a little snack on the way out the door. That's where the money is, that's where they charge. So things like that. You'd be surprised how you can get people in the door and give them the value that they they give them more value than they could have even imagined getting by actually not spiting yourself and giving everything away, or giving the lowest cost thing away so that they are there and they're willing to spend more.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

And that is why it is a profit strategy. You got it. Well, because I think a lot of people aren't uh aware that you are actually working real strategies for them to really help them find that perceived value. Because you're right. If I walk up to a restaurant, one's giving me 10% off, and the other one's giving me, oh, you know, a bottle of wine and dessert. I'm gonna go with the one that's giving me the wine and dessert because it just sounds like I'm getting more from my money. And that's the key. That's key. Yeah, but it's interesting that the other restaurant actually came out ahead when it looked like it was actually giving more away. Right. And so having Jane on your team to really be able to find that money that you're leaving on the table, that is why you need to call her and and and really be able to find these different ideas because again, you have somebody coming in that is on the outside looking in to give you a real good overview, a perception of how your business can do so much better and be more profitable.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

It is that's key, Celeste. I just I have to tell you one thing that that, and unfortunately, as business owners, we all do, we all get married to the idea that we have, the concept that we have. This is going to be great, and it may not be. And and or it may be just plugging along. But I think what everybody needs, and this is why I'm I'm very passionate about it, what because I always wanted somebody to come into my business when I had my brick and mortar. I always wanted somebody to come in and tell me what I was doing wrong, how I could, how I could fix it, not just tell me I'm doing it wrong. Just say to me, okay, this is, you know, did you ever think of doing it this way? You might see more profit, you might see more revenue, you might see more sales, whatever it is, that I was always hungry for. It's not always easy to get, especially if you're in a little niche market. But one thing that I think is pervasive with all business owners is they become very emotionally attached to their business and they stop seeing everything. They got blinders on and they're just focused on one thing. And that is where we come in. We come in as advisors, as a as a board of directors, that you can ask any question. If we don't know it, if we don't have the advisor for you, we will find the advisor that knows it. Um, and we will work with them to work with you to get to a profitable end. Um, I think that that's the biggest thing that I can say to you. You can't be emotionally tied to your business. Business is business, and you need to be able to take the step back. If you can't, hire somebody that can so that you can hear it. You can choose to ignore it, but I wish you wouldn't because then you'd be more profitable and you can enjoy the things that you should be enjoying as a business owner.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Right. Because you have helped people who felt so tied to the business that it was difficult for. them to even find a day off. And after working with you, not only did they find a day off, they actually found vacation time. And that's huge because it's very hard to do this something day in and day out without a break in sight is makes you miserable and everybody that you're working for miserable and it cascades down to the customer.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

And I and I will reiterate that that's why I got out of the brick and mortar that I was in because that's what it was. We we tried desperately to always take a day off. It never worked. We always pulled we always got pulled back in. You know that you know they keep trying to get out they keep pulling me back in. That's the way the business is and if you don't get out of that vortex you will never get out of it. And and to have strategies that you can put into place a team that's working with you, even if you're a solopreneur, you can have a team and people don't even realize that but there's certain things that you can do in talking to people that grow businesses, that build businesses. I've been there. I've done it. I didn't do it right when I was doing my business. Now it's a different story. It's a different way to look at things and just changing in that mindset, that perspective is huge. So yeah, work with somebody that can help you bring your business forward.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

And since we are in the right room we like to do a segment called Room Service. And this is a chance for Jane to give you at least one actionable step that you can do for your business in the next day, the next 48 hours, the next week, or possibly the next month. But an actionable step that you could take that would help your business grow.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

I think you have to be ready for growth. I think you have to be prepared for growth. So here's my best tip to anybody that's listening out there. Always worked for me. Make a pro and con list plain and simple the pluses that your business has always brought to you and the negatives and really write them down. Don't put them in your phone don't write them on your computer. Write them down. Let them actually come out of your hand and onto a piece of paper because there's something to be said about actually putting a pen to paper and seeing those words when you realize that maybe there are more pros than cons or maybe there are more cons than pros. Until you see that on paper in front of you, you really don't know how to deal with it at that point, then you're able to see where you have to go next and see what the next step is. Talking to a business advisor is probably the best thing I could tell you to do after you do that. So you have some semblance of what's going on and what you where you need to go, where your goals should be set.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

I think that's great advice. I think so many of us don't take that time because we are so busy and you can't see the force for the trees. And one moment of writing down what's going well and what's not I imagine would be quite the eye opener.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

It is it usually is and people don't don't take the time to do it because again you don't want to see the ugly but sometimes you have to and and sometimes it's not as bad as you think sometimes it's just you know a little bad but it's always something that can be improved on and again with without the emotional tie to the business an advisor or a coach can come in and actually do the things and show you the steps that you need to take give you this you know I could tell you the stories I've I've heard a million of them I've experienced a million of them myself but the strategies to have and then the next step to take with clarity and confidence and hopefully in the right direction for everybody involved. This also brings us to our last segment gene Parmell what does it mean to you to be in the right room well you know seeing as though um we came up with this the right room I don't even know how many years ago but anyway uh the right room it when I'm in the right room I am with people that are smarter than me. Plain and simple um that's the saying if you're in the right if you're in a room where you're the smartest person in the room you're in the wrong room. I always want to be learning. My father told me I was a professional student. He was very concerned about paying tuition for the rest of his life but I will tell you I love to learn I love to hear um insight from people I love to hear stories that teach a lesson at some point. And I think that being in the right room is being with those type of people that raise you up, that make you achieve a better level that's a very good answer. Thank you. I made it up all by myself I've never heard it from anybody else. I've heard it from so I've had so many different mentors and coaches and and people that have been influential in my life that's what I have found out and and every experience is a learning experience even doing a podcast.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Exactly and being learning for people to take a moment to think okay I need to find other people to talk to about my business about my growth about where my goal is taking me and am I reaching those goals and what more I can do. I I think that you're right we we do tend to put blinders on. You know it's like put your head down and just do the work. And if you don't come up for air and start looking around to see who can give you some nuggets of advice that could change the whole ballgame for you. And that's something that we have to remind ourselves to do.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

And think about the missed opportunities. That's that's my thing think about the situations the opportunities that you could have taken a part of and didn't because you weren't prepared or you weren't ready. We try to make sure that our clients are ready so that if something lands in their lap they don't go oh my God how do we do this now? They just kind of segue into got it we'll be right back to you and and they have the answers to their prospect.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Well I have to tell you Jane you make a wonderful guest. It's so nice to finally understand what it is you do.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Good we only know each other how long now finally yeah I know well it's it's a little it's it gets a little wonky sometimes but that's what we do.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

We we really are looking to help clients so and I know firsthand the people that you've helped because you have brought me in on occasion and it's great to hear them speak about how wonderful you are and how much you've helped them grow and and really be able to give them a sense of of an understanding of where their business is at and all of the amazing possibilities that they didn't realize were there. So it's it's it's really quite amazing the business that you do and provide and how much people are learning and growing and profiting by it. Well I thank you so much I appreciate that well I'm Celeste Camps and I'm Jane Parmell of this episode thank you for coming to the right room thanks bye