too many numbers? what numbers to track in your small business, and how?

I am a big believer in tracking the numbers you want to grow!!  This will also help you grow your small business.

By checking them regularly, you'll get the benefit of it such as; know how you are doing today; measure the impact of things you are trying out. So, which numbers really matter? Which ones should you be keeping your eye on and track of?

While it may vary from industry to industry - here are five areas every business owner should track if you want to grow your business:

Revenue
How much money is coming in the door? How does it compare to your goal?
I am sure that most small business owner look at this but do you track it consistently?
That's how you get the best results.
I would recommend that as a small business owner - you need to look at your revenue every week and every month.

Profit
I work with a lot of businesses that are bringing in a lot of revenue, but mysteriously not much is left over as profit.
At the end of the day, this is the 'bottom line', financially speaking and as you've seen and heard me mentioned this term on most of my website, my work, and my business writings.
All of the numbers are important because they all contribute to predict profit.

Number of customers
This is related to revenue so it is important to track them.
If you are not reaching your revenue goals - you need to find a way to bring in more customers.
So when you do your marketing, you can immediately see how effective it is by how many additional customers come in.

Sales conversion %
What fraction of your customers buy from you?
For a retail business - how many people who walk into your store end up buying something? 10%? 30%? 60%?
If you run a new promotion - how many new customers inquired about your product/service?
How many new customers buy on the spot?
These measure how effective your sales process is. Everyone's sale's process can get better!! Be creative and try different things.

Customer satisfaction
Everyone knows that happy customers are the lifeblood of a business, but how many of you measure this?
Conduct a survey and ask for comments so you know what to keep doing and what to improve.

Your challenge: Action Plan

Here is how to make tracking numbers easy for you. Create your own management board. You can use a piece of paper, whiteboard or Excel to draw your grid and stick it on your computer or a place where you can see it every day as a reminder.

Number to Track                    Oct 31       Nov30        Dec31        Jan31
Revenue $
Profit $
# Customers
Conversion %
Cust Satisfaction

So each time you write the new numbers in your dashboard - ask yourself, what did  I do differently to get these results?

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