The first factor in measuring the success of your business is to assess your inner satisfaction to determine whether you are enjoying the process of being in business or even enjoying being alive. The second factor is to ascertain that your business meshes well with your life as it does with your essence—who you really are. The third factor is to determine whether or not you have balance in your life.

And there’s a fourth measurement of your success—after you’ve arranged to have enough free time, after you’ve found ways to contribute to your planet, after you’ve formed your connections, after your relationships are in order, and after your health is excellent. This measuring method should be part of your overall plan or you’ll lose your way.

The yardstick to which I refer is profit, the lifeblood of an author. Entrepreneurial Authors keep their eyes on that bottom line, but they never lose their awareness of their higher priorities.

Amazingly, some authors never address this crucial yardstick. Even more ridiculous, many authors make this the only criterion of their success. The way of The Entrepreneurial Author gives this measure of success a modified priority. Entrepreneurial Authors are inevitably interested in this measurement because it is an important part of why they are in business in the first place. But they never give profits the highest priority, because profits are neither the only nor the most important reason for being in business.

More Important than Profit

Here are ten things that true Entrepreneurial Authors consider to be more important than profit:

  1. Their future
  2. Their overall plan
  3. Their readers
  4. Their employees
  5. Their prospects
  6. Their families
  7. Their time
  8. Their inner satisfaction
  9. Their integration of business and life
  10. Their balance

Less Important than Profit

Now here are ten things that true Entrepreneurial Authors consider less important than profit:

  1. Their sales
  2. Their returns
  3. Their response rate
  4. Their store traffic
  5. Their volume
  6. Their gross
  7. Their press coverage
  8. Their ego
  9. Their status quo
  10. Their growth

Entrepreneurial Authors emphasize profitability.