As a Manager at Subway, there are two things I have the most control over:
Labor
Cost of Goods
In this newsletter, I’ll be focusing on the second item: Cost of Goods.
Earlier this week, I uploaded a video to my YouTube channel, called: Your Personal Inventory.
It was a little after six in the morning. I was on my way to one of my stores to see where our inventory was at. In other words, I would count everything in the store; from paper products to proteins and anything in between.
That video, not unlike most of mine, was purely extemporaneous. I didn’t rehearse, nor have anything scripted. I was thinking out loud; inviting listeners and viewers into the sliced-meat-of-a-brain I’ve got to work with.
Last night, I saw fellow Substacker,
mention that particular video on his podcast, Level 1 Coach.Huh, I thought, pleasantly surprised that Your Personal Inventory resonated with Drew and cohost, Mikhail Bryan. Maybe this thing has legs; I’ll write about it.
In an attempt to be more precise—just like an accurate count in my stores—I decided to do write my way through my thoughts on the concept of Your Personal Inventory.
Subway’s inventory.
After I’ve counted everything in the store(s), I upload it to our system. The inventory’s count, juxtaposed with last week’s delivery and sales, gives me my stores’ Cost of Goods that week—an important number that helps determine how profitable we were.
Now, just because everything gets counted doesn’t mean they’re of equal value. You don’t have to be in the food industry to surmise steak is a higher cost than deli paper.
What I’m saying is, I don’t have to be as precise in my counts with the latter as I do with the former. I don’t weigh deli paper—it literally grows on trees. On the other hand, you bet your bottom dollar I weigh shaved steak, as well as every other protein, down to the ounce.
Why?
Proteins carry a lot more weight, no pun intended, to our Cost of Goods than paper and plastic. If our inventory shows a pound of protein that’s not accounted for, it’s going to affect that week’s profit far more than if an entire case of cookie bags walked out the door.
In Subway’s inventory, everything gets counted, but not everything matters (as much) to the bottom line.
Similar to your life, wouldn’t you agree?
You have an inventory, too.
Here’s the deal. You, like one of my Subway stores, have an inventory—your Personal Inventory.
What’s in your Personal Inventory?
You’ve got your “paper products” like emails in your spam folder that never need to be read, ever. You’ve got social media PINGS! on your phone during the hours God should have never made. You’ve got coworkers trying their darndest to reel you into drama at work because they literally have nothing better to do.
And then you’ve got your “proteins” like spending time with God and your family. You’ve got setting time aside to sharpen your mind and train your body. You’ve got the discipline to develop yourself personally and professionally.
You, like one of my Subway stores, have an inventory; where everything counts, but not everything matters as much to your bottom line, your cost of goods.
Your Cost of Goods.
All these things in your personal inventory contribute to your Cost of Goods—the Cost of Being Good, I should say.
Which things in your personal inventory do you think carry more weight? Your “paper products” or “proteins”?
If you’re spending twenty-eight hours a week on Instagram, but only spending a seventh of that time with your wife, there’s probably a lot of protein in your personal inventory that’s not accounted for. You’re probably not a very profitable person, so to speak.
In other words, your cost of being good might mean spending a seventh of your time on Instagram, and the other eighty-five-to-ninety-percent with your wife, your family, God.
This is just one example, but you get the point. Your life’s “proteins” contribute to your Cost of Being Good than your “paper products”.
Be your own Manager.
Do this: take a Personal Inventory. Write down everything you do.
Be honest with yourself. What things are contributing to, or taking away from, your cost of goods?
From there, spend less time and effort with the paper products in your life and spend more time on the proteins.
In other words, be your own Manager; and as your own Manager, one thing you have the most control over is your cost of goods—the cost of being good, that is.