Is Profitability or Growth more Important for Companies?


Stock image of a young bearded man, wearing glasses, surrounded by computer monitors in an office. In front of him there are screens showing maps of the world with associated data.

To be successful and stay in business, profitability and growth are important and essential for a company to survive and remain attractive to investors and analysts. Profitability is, of course, critical to a company’s existence, but growth is critical to long-term survival.

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Key takeaways

When valuing a company, what should you weigh more: profitability or growth?

A growing business may not be making a profit yet, but it can still provide a great investment opportunity.

Other times, lack of profitability can be a big red flag that something is wrong with the business.

Cost effectiveness

The net profit of a company is the income after deducting all the costs of manufacturing, producing and selling products. Profit is “money in the bank.” It goes directly to the owners or shareholders of the company, or is reinvested in the company. Profit, for any business, is the primary goal, and for a business that initially has no investors or funding, profit may be the corporation’s only capital.

Without sufficient capital or financial resources used to maintain and run a business, business failure is imminent. No company can survive for a significant amount of time without making a profit, although measuring a company’s profitability, both current and future, is crucial for the company to be judged.

While a business may use financing to sustain itself financially for some time, it is ultimately a liability, not an asset.

An income statement shows not only a company’s profitability, but also its costs and expenses for a given period, usually over a one-year period. To calculate profitability, the income statement is necessary to create a profitability index. Several different profitability ratios can be calculated to analyze the financial situation of a company.

Fas

It is essential to growing profitability and focus on it at the beginning, or start an entrepreneurial business. On the other hand, market growth and sales are the way to achieve that initial profitability. The next important item on any company’s list of goals should be to identify growth opportunities after your company has moved beyond the start-up phase.

It is essentially an expansion of business growth, making the business bigger and ultimately expanding its market and making it more profitable. Growth can be measured by looking at a number of relevant statistics, such as overall sales, number of staff, market share, and turnover.

While a company’s current profitability may be good, growth opportunities should always be explored as they offer opportunities for higher overall profitability and retain prospective or current analysts and potential investors interested in the company.

Knowledge of the current state of any business is critical to creating a successful growth strategy. If a business has too many weak areas, such as performance, sales, or marketability, a premature effort can eventually fuel business growth. The first step is consolidation of existing markets, which basically means locking in a company’s current position before trying to change it with growth.

The baseline

Profitability and growth go hand in hand for success in business. Profits are critical to fundamental financial survival as a corporate entity, while growth is critical to long-term profit and success. Investors must weigh all the factors that apply to a particular company.


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