How’s Business? (Metric for Success)
As small business owners, we often are asked, “How’s business?” It can be a tough question to answer because there are so many elements, some of which can be good and some not so good at the same time. Sales might be up, but an employee is having problems. Profits may be climbing, but a supplier is really dropping the ball on us. So, while this question might be hard to answer when asked directly, I bet in your own mind, you are constantly answering the question based on one or two key observations of your business, or ‘metrics.’
I’ve gotten to know the owners of a certain local business over the past year or so. Every time I get off the highway and drive home, I pass their shop. And every time I do, I glance over to see how many cars are parked out front. It’s an instant indicator of how business is doing. I had a client a while back who measured her daily success by how often the phone rang. To her, the ringing phone was orders calling in, business getting done.
While I try to get business owners to identify key metrics for their Dashboard (well-defined, measurable numbers), it is these less formal indicators that many of us look to to see how business is doing. What are yours? Here are a few more I’ve heard:
- Cars in the parking lot
- Phones ringing
- Deliveries
- Butts in seats
- Presses running
- Invoices printed
- Email inquiries
- Website visits
Take a moment to sit back and observe your business. Look at the operations. What stands out as an indicator of a busy day, a profitable day, a day that you would say, “Since you asked, business is doing quite well!”
April 6th, 2008 11:20
[…] In a recent blog post, Stuart Preston asks that question and came out with some common sense metrics for the small businesses. “How’s business?” It can be a tough question to answer because there are so many elements, some of which can be good and some not so good at the same time. Sales might be up, but an employee is having problems. Profits may be climbing, but a supplier is really dropping the ball on us. So, while this question might be hard to answer when asked directly, I bet in your own mind, you are constantly answering the question based on one or two key observations of your business, or ‘metrics.’ […]