21.3

What is it? That’s the percentage of each sales dollar the top performers in our 2004 Jewelers Financial Benchmarking Study took home. Actually, 21.3% was just the median, or half-way point, of this group. This means some owners socked away even more. We call this measurement ODP, or “Owner’s Discretionary Profit”. It’s made up of net profit before tax plus owner compensation, which includes all amounts paid to owners (salaries, bonuses, retirement, and benefits). Compare this to 9.5% ODP for all survey participants. Apply the difference to the median study sales figure of $1,677,680 and you get a whopping $197,000 in additional profit dollars.

Strategy: Manage your costs, especially staff costs and cost of goods sold. Hang out with other high-ODP performers. Set a target ODP for the year, track it regularly, and brainstorm ideas to improve it.

This story is from the February 2006 edition of INSTORE.