Operating in an environment of uncertainty and changing market conditions, business owners and directors need to access every tool at their disposal to overcome many hurdles and help their business not just to survive, but to thrive.
So how do you know which direction points to success if you haven’t measured your past performance? You need to understand what strategies worked well and learn from the failures.
Know your numbers
This is one of our key phrases at CRM – understanding your finances is the foundation of a successful business and measuring your balance sheet, cash flow and profitability will form the basis of future investments and ultimately whether you can pay the bills.
You should be reviewing your cash flow monthly and annually to assess the difference between your projected and actual sales. Measuring your profitability will highlight areas for growth and underperforming parts of your business.
Know your customer
Do you ask your customers how they feel when they buy from you? A dissatisfied customer is unlikely to return. Using surveys, product reviews and social media, customer feedback should help you to develop your future services and products to make sure they satisfy changing demands.
Measuring the number of new customers is also a good indicator of your success. If all your business comes from just a few customers, it might be time to think about your marketing strategy. And don’t forget to measure your marketing efforts to see which are the most successful at identifying and converting leads.
Know your employees
If your people have targets that impact the overall success of your business, their work needs to be reviewed to see how they’re doing. Performance reviews help employees to see where they can improve and how effectively they manage tasks and time.
Know your market
Do you benchmark your company against your competitors? It’s important to understand how your rivals respond to changing market conditions – how does their pricing and customer service compare? You can even take it one step further and benchmark across other sectors to bring innovative ideas back to your business.
If you need help to identify what you need to measure within your business – both financially and non-financially – why not turn to an outside expert? At CRM, as part of our Business Improvement Programme, we share our experience and expertise to help you ‘know your numbers’ and interpret the KPI results you’re measuring.
Contact CRM on 01865 379272 for more details on measuring success and growing your business with the help of the Business Improvement Programme.
