You Manage What You Measure


One of my favourite bosses worked by the motto “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth measuring”. When I whined that something just couldn’t be measured, he would say, “There’s always something to measure.” And he was always right.

It’s an important concept for small business owners. Having a set of metrics that you watch and that you feel are the key drivers of your success, helps you keep clarity. If you don’t have goals stated for your company, and if you don’t regularly measure how you’re doing against those goals, you won’t have your resources focused on the right priorities.

The more public you can make your goals the better. Transparency of goals drives performance because it creates both a commitment and a sense of urgency. Commitment and urgency are key drivers of success.

People often measure the wrong stuff, or measure with the wrong precision (either too high-level or too detailed). There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach but there are two pretty universal measures:
Customer Acquisition – new, lost, average sale, cost to acquire, etc.
Revenue Metrics – especially trends

The ‘how’ of implementation will vary among companies and figuring that out can be a challenge, but I guarantee that you will learn more about your business and be in a better position to make strategic decisions.

Originally published in Work Better, Not Harder on November 30, 2011

Click to Tweet this Article

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Your Goals Shape Your Content

Super Easy Screen Recording

Paper Counts

Quick Tip - Avoid Hidden Format Problems

Guest Post: 10 Ways to Figure out What to Write on Your Blog When You Don’t Know What to Write on Your Blog

Design Colour Trends for Spring 2018

"But I don’t want to spam my friends!"

Gift Certificates, Holiday Specials, and Stocking Stuffers

Top 10 Strategic Benefits of an eNewsletter

Here's How Writing Content Turns You Into an Expert