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title: Plansmith Blog | Ricardo Pena
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## Ricardo Pena

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## [A Tech In Community Bank’s Clothing](https://blog.plansmith.com/a-tech-in-community-banks-clothing)

 Posted by [Ricardo Pena](https://blog.plansmith.com/author/ricardo-pena) on 5/22/14, 3:30 PM

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[![ATechInBanksClothing.jpg](https://blog.plansmith.com/hubfs/ATechInBanksClothing.jpg)](https://blog.plansmith.com/a-tech-in-community-banks-clothing) 

The road to profitability begins with a very simple concept. An asset is acquired at a certain value X and it is sold at a value Y where Y is greater than X and the difference between the two gets you going. This is a concept that is very simple indeed. But this post isn’t a narrative about the arithmetic involved in generating profits; rather it is a discussion that begins with examining the nature of the assets being bought and sold, which is money.

Non-financial businesses ranging from the humble lemonade stand to the behemoth WalMart are easy to understand. The assets being transacted are, for the most part, quite tangible. It is easy to understand that something is manufactured, it is delivered to a retail place of business, it is stored in a warehouse as a portion of inventory, it is displayed on a shelf and it is ultimately purchased by people like you and me to put in a bag to take home. The equivalent chain of distribution can be identified in banking but there is one big difference that makes it all the more complicated. It is the fact that the product, being money in its many different forms, is not something you see, feel, taste, hear, or smell in any direct way.

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