How to Map Where Money Comes From
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01
Find the Person Who Hurts Most Figure out exactly who has a problem that gets much worse if your company stops working. This shows you where the money really comes from.
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02
Follow the Pain to the Payment Trace every step from a customer's first annoyance to when they pay you. See exactly what difficulty your company removes to earn that money.
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03
See the Money Keep Coming Back Track how one initial purchase leads to more payments later, like ongoing support fees or needing to buy refills. This shows you the real worth of a customer over time.
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04
Costs vs. New Income Ideas Compare how much money is spent just keeping things running versus how much is spent finding new things to charge customers for. This reveals the company's true plan for getting bigger.
The Business Confusion
The room suddenly feels way too hot when the person interviewing you leans in and asks, "So, how do we actually make money?" You look at the presentation slides, but the graphs just look like blurry noise. You see the colors, but you can't see the actual money. It's a specific kind of dizzy spell—a mental fog where terms like "repeat money" and "unit costs" sound like nonsense instead of a clear path forward.
The usual advice is to read the yearly financial report, but for most people, a giant report full of numbers is just something to put on a shelf. It gives you tons of data but hides the human story behind complicated money words, making you feel more confused than when you started.
To really get how any business works, you need to stop trying to remember numbers and start following the real journey of one dollar from a customer's pocket to the company's bank account.
What the Experts See
The quick action step is about translating. It means taking those huge, scary business terms and changing them into a simple story: "Someone who has this exact problem gives us $50, and we give them this exact fix in return." It means asking the sales team what customers complain about or asking a manager what happens if a client leaves. You are looking for the real "why" behind the money.
Telling a creative person or a teacher to read a 100-page legal financial report to "get the business" is like telling someone who wants to cook to read a textbook on chemistry first. It gives you raw data with no context. It’s written to meet a legal requirement, not to help you do your job better. Doing this won't make you smarter; it will just make you more tired and more convinced you don't belong in the business world.
Taking big, confusing business ideas and turning them into a simple story: "Someone with this specific problem gives us $50, and in return, we give them this specific solution." It means asking the sales team what customers complain about or asking a project manager what happens if a client cancels. You are looking for the true "reason" behind the money.
If you have asked three different managers how the company actually makes a profit and you get three different vague answers full of buzzwords like "synergy" or "ecosystems," the problem is with the company culture. You aren't just confused—you are working in a Place Where Things Are Kept Secret.
If you have been there for months and the business model still feels like a secret code you can't break, you need to stop trying harder to understand a mess that doesn't make sense. If the leaders keep things "vague" on purpose, they might be hiding a lack of direction or a shaky foundation. You can't build a career on a foundation you can't see. Stop trying to "study more" and start looking for your next opportunity—one where the value you create is clear, measurable, and real. If the "why" is missing, your future there is missing, too. Plan your move to a place where the value you create is visible, measurable, and real.
Understanding Business Money and Income with Cruit
Big Picture View Career Advice Tool
Works like a 24/7 expert to help you see the whole company by pointing out what you don't yet know about the market.
Match Your Skills Resume Tool
Shows how your past work actually helped performance numbers so you can describe your history using important business words.
Talk About Your Value Interview Practice Tool
Turns your research into clear stories about how you understand the company’s money flow, using practice cards.
Quick Questions: Getting Past the "Business Talk" Block
I'm not in finance or sales, so why do I need to know how they make money?
It's necessary for everyone. Your salary is paid by the company's ability to make a profit.
When you know how money moves through the business, you can explain how your specific job helps that money move faster or stay with the company longer. This changes you from just an expense to a valuable person who gets the big picture.
Is explaining it simply "too basic"? Won't an interviewer expect fancy financial words?
No, simple is better.
Most interviewers are tired of hearing people repeat confusing money buzzwords like "synergistic monetization" when they don't really know what it means. By explaining how the business makes money in simple, everyday language, you prove you have rare "business feeling"—the ability to see things from the customer's view and the owner's view at the same time.
Take Control
Truly understanding how a business makes money is the difference between just having a job and actually knowing how to build something successful.
Don't just ride along in your career; take charge by learning exactly how value is created.
When you can clearly explain how a company turns a product into profit, you change from an employee who can be replaced to a key planner who is vital to any organization.
