GI Griffin | ROI (Return on Investment) & Why it’s the Only Thing That Matters in Business

01 Nov ROI (Return on Investment) & Why it’s the Only Thing That Matters in Business

Posted at 20:16h in Featured, GI SAID IT by GI Griffin

If you don’t understand ROI (Return on Investment), you don’t understand business. Period. This isn’t just a nice-to-know concept—it’s THE foundation you need to build on if you want your business to survive and thrive. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, or just someone chasing success, ROI is your golden compass. Ignore it, and you’re just running a very expensive hobby.

It’s time to get real about what makes a business work—and spoiler alert—it’s not chasing trends or jumping on every social issue. It’s about RESULTS. Cold. Hard. Results. And those results, my friend, will always come down to one thing—ROI.

What is ROI and Why Should You Care?

ROI is the measure of how much profit you make relative to the money you’ve invested. It’s basic math but critical for survival. Think of it this way—if you’re spending more than you’re making, that’s not a business; it’s a draining sinkhole. ROI makes sure every dollar you pump into your business works hard for you. Whether it’s marketing, equipment, hiring, or new software, each expense needs to deliver results that grow your bottom line.

Here’s the no-BS truth about ROI:

It’s Not Optional. Every decision should be filtered through an ROI lens. Profitability isn’t just nice-to-have; it’s life or death for businesses.
It’s Non-Negotiable. If you don’t measure ROI, you’re just throwing money into the wind and hoping something sticks.
It’s The Game Plan. Profits first, politics later—because your staff, your family, and your customers depend on your ability to keep the lights on.

The Leadership Factor—Why It Starts at the Top

Want to know the easiest way to kill your business? Poor leadership. It doesn’t matter if you have the best product or millions in the bank. If your leadership can’t steer the ROI ship, the whole thing is sinking.

Here’s what great leadership looks like when it comes to ROI:

Experience, Not Credentials. No, you won’t learn this in school. Business school can give you theories, but it can’t teach you the relentless grit and creativity you need to generate real ROI. That comes from experience.
Ego Aside. Great leaders don’t need to know everything. They find mentors, ask questions, and surround themselves with people smarter than them. The goal? Get results, not an ego boost.
Strategic Thinking. Leaders need to position their business in the market where ROI multiplies. It’s about understanding demand, competition, and making moves that drive real returns.

The best advice? Find people who know what they’re doing and learn from them. Forget pride—experience beats ego every single time.

Stop Chasing Noise—Focus on the Fundamentals

There’s a dangerous trend right now where businesses are getting lost in what’s trendy—social causes, viral trends, whatever’s headline-worthy this week. That’s not where your head should be if you want ROI.

Look, I’m not saying you can’t care about causes. But here’s the deal:

Take Care of Business First—Your customers don’t pay you for your opinions. They pay you for value. Focus on delivering that value.
Leave Politics at the Door—A lot of companies play the social card just to sell more. Don’t buy into the noise. ROI, not clout, is the focus.
Build the Foundation—Think of your business like a house. Lay the foundation (profitability, cash flow, ROI). Only build the extras once the foundation is rock-solid.

The ROI Playbook

If ROI isn’t already tattooed into your business game plan, here’s how to start:

Track Everything. Know exactly where your money is going and what it’s bringing back in. Use tools, software, or just plain spreadsheets—track or fail.
Make Smart Investments. Not everything will have an instant payoff, but every investment should have a clear path to driving ROI. If it doesn’t, skip it.
Stick to What Works. Tried a campaign or strategy that worked? Double down on it. Don’t overcomplicate—refine and repeat proven methods.
Cut What Doesn’t. Ego has no place here. If something didn’t work, drop it (even if it stings). Your focus is ROI, nothing else.
Learn From Experience. This can’t be overstated. If you’re not learning from your successes and failures—or, better yet, from those who’ve already succeeded—you’re wasting precious time.

ROI vs. The Noise

What separates successful entrepreneurs from those who crash and burn? Their razor-sharp focus on ROI. Those who lack experience end up distracted by drama, viral trends, or their social validation. And the result? Wasted resources and failure.

Listen up—you didn’t start your business to look cool or gain followers. You started to make an impact, provide value, and, most importantly, make money. Results first, everything else second. If you’re not focused on ROI, you’re just playing office.

The Harsh Truth About Ego in Business

Ego is enemy #1 when it comes to ROI. You see it every day—people too afraid to ask for help, unwilling to admit they don’t know everything, or too stuck in their ways to pivot. Drop the ego if you want to win.

Ask for Help. Your pride won’t pay the bills. Find mentors, reach out for guidance, and learn from the best.
Stay Humble, Stay Hungry. The best don’t stop at “good enough.” They constantly refine, adapt, and improve based on measurable results.
Put Customers First. This isn’t about you. It’s about serving your customers and earning their loyalty by providing value they’ll come back for.

Don’t Waste Time—Focus on ROI and Win Big

Here’s the ultimate takeaway—everything you do in business MUST deliver ROI. If it doesn’t, cut it out. Success is about discipline, smart investments, and surrounding yourself with people who empower you to win.

There’s no magic bullet here—just hard work, smart decisions, and relentless focus. Skip the trends. Skip the noise. Focus on what matters.

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SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Saying that’s probably going to get ’em canceled. Ooh, I’m telling mama she don’t love you Anyways, GI said it. Yeah, I said it. GI here on GI said it where I break down a bit about my perspectives on different topics, and today we’re going to be talking about ROI. That’s right. Return on investment. And I’m going to tell you guys a little secret about business. Nothing else matters. That is the entire reason you’re getting into business is to make money. And it’s not just, Hey, we’re bringing in profits, but we spent more than we made, right? Because then that wouldn’t be a return on investment. You need to make sure that what you’re investing in your business, in your brand, that you get that return. And the reason I want to talk about this is because I’m definitely seeing a lot of people mixing up the point of business.

A lot of ’em think that it’s about social justice or whatever the particular thing is of the day that people are fighting for, not about that. They’re not your parents, they’re not your tribe, they’re business. They’re there to make sure that they can feed their families and make sure that their employees can feed their families. So when it comes to ROI, one of the easiest ways to do that is simply making sure that you have leadership who knows what they’re doing. And I say this because especially today, you have a lot of people going into business and they have no clue in terms of how to actually do that, how to get that return on investment. You can have the best business, the best product, the most amount of funds, but if you have leadership that does not know how to get that ROI or how to direction and strategically place their business in the market to get that ROI, it’s kind of pointless.

So the first step is always getting that leader, that person who understands business. And I’m going to be real with you. It’s not something you can learn in school. It’s not something you’re going to go to school. And then you read couple books, you pass some tests, and then suddenly no business. It’s not how it works. You learn from experience, you learn from working with other people who have that type of experience and can give that to you. And I’ve definitely seen that within my life. I’ve actually gone to school for business and quickly saw within the class I was having done business before getting to the class. I was like, man, none of this matters in business. It’s cute, it’ll get you an A. But all that matters is are we making profits? Can we pay the bills? Can we make a profit? Can we pay ourselves?

Can we make sure our families are okay? That is always the focus. It is not any other political issue or whatever issues going on. I get it. A lot of businesses will go ahead and interject themselves into these spheres to get people to say, Hey, wow, you really support our cause. We will support you guys, guys, guys, it’s business. They’re doing that so that you support their brand so that you give them money. Do you actually think they really care about what you care about? No, because it’s not their job to do. So today I want to talk about ROI because I want to talk about the realities of business because knowing this one particular thing that ROI matters most allows you to be moving in the right direction from the start rather than running around in circles, getting caught up in drama and all these other things that don’t have anything to do with that.

And you’re going to see this between a person who has experience in business and a person who doesn’t. The person who doesn’t is just basically going to follow of what’s going on in the world. And I don’t fault them for that. They don’t know any better, but they could have at least looked at and followed someone who did know what they were doing so that they can get that headstart and really start moving that direction quickly. So that has to do with hopefully having a lack of ego and insecurity. That’s the number one thing that I see that keeps people from getting ROI. They either think that they know the thing or they don’t want to ask the question, or it makes them feel insecure to feel like they’re not in charge. Look, if you’re starting a business because you want to feel good about yourself or feel like you’re in charge or feel like you’re important, I’m just be you.

Go ahead and get another job right from the start, what’s going to end up happening? Business don’t work that way. And it’s not about that. It’s not about you, it’s about your customers, it’s about your clients. It’s about making sure that you’re delivering that value that they are paying you their money for. When it comes to your own business, ROI always has to be at the forefront of everything that you’re doing after you have achieved positive ROI. Okay, now we can look at these other issues. If it was my business, I’m still not. It has nothing to do with my business and I’m not getting involved with that. However, if you wish to do that, take care of what you got to do first, right? Be an adult. Take care of the foundation. Laid up foundation first. Okay, that’s stable. Now move on to the next thing.

So I hope that this helped out a little bit in terms of the perspective of ROI. I’m not going to go through the definitions and whatever techniques are going on today because in reality, I sum them up with one word experience. You either go get experience or you get some experience from somebody else in terms of what they’ve gone through so they can guide you. It’s the same exact thing that I did within my own business. I didn’t say, Hey, I know how to do it on my own. That’s ridiculous. That’s idiotic. That is your ego talking. I instead went to people who knew what they were doing and said, how can I help? How can I help so that I can learn from you? And that moved me along within my career so much more fast than just trying to do it on my own.

I don’t care for that. I want the win. I don’t need the ego boost. I don’t need the ego stroke. I need the win. So guys, you guys know exactly where to check me out gi griffin.com where I have over 20 years of experience within business marketing and tech and music industry. None of that really matters. The thing that actually matters is that I care to get experience from people who know a lot more than me so that I can win, so that my team can win, so that my family can win. And again, that’s what it’s all about. ROI, baby GI here on GI said it. Make sure you guys check me out on the website, gi griffin.com. Let me know if you guys want me to break down another topic that you had in mind and give my perspective. I’m out.