Business Development Metrics

As a business owner you need a way to monitor your progress. Successful entrepreneurs always know where they stand, relative to the goals that they have set. They know how much revenue they have to generate, how much product they have to sell and what the associated costs should be. They have a system in place to provide them with current, relevant data so they can act and react accordingly at a moments notice.

While most businesses generate a monthly financial statement, that’s not enough! Often, by the time your monthly report is completed and balanced with your bank statement you’re looking at up to 45 days and if there is a problem, too much damage is already done. In today’s competitive marketplace, you need access to key information on an “as-needed” basis to effectively deal with problems as they arise.
There are a number of ways to create your own “key indicators”, specific to your business and be sure that your “system” isn’t complex. Simplicity is the key. For example, in the restaurant industry, the two big variable costs are food & labour. With food and labour costs consistent, you know you will be profitable and your customers will never be surprised.

As a service provider, I focus on “Billable Hours” and I can do this on a daily and weekly basis knowing that if I am scheduling 25 billable hours a week or averaging 5 hours a day that at the end of the month I will be in good shape.
Other key indicators can come in the form of monitoring customer traffic, supplier cost fluctuations and even the fluctuating value of our Canadian dollar. Key indicators represent only essential information that you keep at your fingertips to allow you to react quickly.

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