This Month’s Weekly Spark Theme: Business Success = Math
What do I mean by this? BUSINESS SUCCESS = MATH
Are you thinking my business success equals so many things, like marketing, delivery, execution, customer service, product/service creation and more? You are right; all of these are part of your business success and all of them can be linked to your business numbers.
For example, why do we market our businesses? We market our businesses to bring in “traffic”. The term “traffic” comes from foot traffic into a store. Now it also applies to anything that brings your business to someone’s attention – like your website or a networking event. Do you know your overall traffic numbers?
Too many entrepreneurs go into business with a great idea or a passion, but they don’t tackle the business side of being an entrepreneur. Sadly we are not taught business basics in school or how to apply it to a real business.
In order to grow your business you need to stay focused on your numbers.
There is magic to numbers and math, which is the compound effect. Increasing a series of measurable components of your business by 10% to 15% will result in a compound effect of more than doubling your revenues. Yes, more than doubling your revenues.
It is so much easier to determine how to improve one of your existing numbers by 10% then to figure out how to double something. So for example, if you currently have an average of 100 new visitors step into your store daily, what do you need to do to increase that number to 110? That is simply attracting 10 more people who enter your store and much easier than trying to double the number and attract 100 more people.
This month’s Weekly Sparks and daily blogs are going to be focused on your business numbers. I’ll be introducing the key numbers that you should be tracking, which I call “The 7 (plus 1) Accelerators”. All businesses no matter your size, industry, or clients, need to focus on these Accelerators.
What are you tracking?
To start with, I want you to think about what business numbers you are currently measuring and tracking. How are you measuring them and how frequently are you looking at them? I’ve created a simple worksheet, “7 Accelerator Worksheet – 1st Step”, that you can use to capture what you are doing today. You need to know your starting point in order to improve where your business is going. The reality is, just starting to be aware of your numbers by tracking them, often results in improved results. Why? You’ll see gaps, opportunities, and steps that you know your business needs to do, but aren’t getting done.
It is easy these days to get tied up in social media, serving our clients, looking for new clients, online marketing and many other things. Time flies by and we find ourselves making money, but not reaching the revenues that we really deserve. Time and time again, I find entrepreneurs (women, in particular) working hard but not reaching the audience they want and/or the revenue they need.
Why? They are not:
- Focused on their numbers
- Leveraging the effect of compounding, where small changes to their numbers result in a large increase to their revenue.
- Planning their business decisions based on all of their key numbers.
If you want to double your revenue it is time to focus on your numbers. Take the first step. Download the “7 Accelerator Worksheet – 1st Step” and capture what you are measuring today. Please share below what you’ve discovered about your numbers. What are you measuring? What aren’t your measuring?
Next: The 7 Accelerators
I love to see entrepreneurs follow their passions, serve more people and create the lifestyle of their dreams.
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Hi Heather,
I wonder if it is the same entrepreneurs who don’t know their business numbers who have total money ignorance. They don’t count their money and they do not know how much money is coming in every month, how much money do they need to sustain their life at a basic level, or how much money is remaining at the end of the month to save, to stack up emergency funds or to have some fun.
Rachel: I think your point is very true of many entrepreneurs. I also think there are those who do track numbers but have never learnt what numbers to really track. Nor have they learn the compound effect of change each number a relatively small percentage.
Thanks Heather for a Great Post and Advice. Unfortunately I am very new to the on line business adventure. So I am very guilty of not looking at numbers. There is so much to learn and implement that I am so over whelmed and very frustrated at times. I do understand it is a valuable part of my business so I will have to take the time to look at my numbers and see where I can improve my business. Thanks again for all the great advice you have here.
Barbara – Being new can be an advantage, instead of focusing on the social media part, look at each task as it relates to the key Accelerators in your business. Stay tune to this blog and later on this month I’ll be giving you tactics and ideas of how to do just that.
I’m afraid I am guilty of not doing tracking as you are suggesting. I get too busy just trying to keep up with writing blogs, keeping up my blog site, doing social media activities and every day personal/family activities. I seems there are always fires to put out that take unscheduled time. You have made some really good points.
Pat: Thank you for sharing the real life problem that small business owners face. I’m going to be providing suggestion on how to ask yourself how an activity to relates to the key elements of making money in a business so stay tune.
Sage advice Heather!
I really like and appreciate your advice! My biggest take away is where you so wisely
advice and point out that’s far easier and so much more practical to concentrate on increasing one
of your metrics by say 10 to 22%
As opposed to trying sometimes in vain to double this or double that!
Progress is progress! And it’s far easier, especially in the beginning to consistently accomplish
the first, as oppose to to the latter!
Excellent advice and thanks so much for sharing!
BTW, I’m finding much to my delight, that your blog is one of the very few that I’ve had the pleasure of studying thus far, that really not only takes a serious look at the numbers side of your business, but you offer sound practical methods of accomplishing the strategies you advocate!
Thank you! That’s so refreshing!
Mark, Thank you for you great feedback, I really appreciate it.
Love progress is progress! It is small little changes are going to lead business owners to success.
i honestly don’t like the numbers part of my job but I know it is key
Veronica – I know many entrepreneurs I meet don’t like the number part. I do believe that if you track them, even at a high level, you can translate that into activities that you want to do. That is going to be the focus on the Video Series coming out next week. How to connect the numbers to your business in an exciting way.
Thank you for the info – I’ll have to check it out.
Laurel: Thank you for stopping by and reading this post. I hope you find it useful.
Thank you for that very informative information, I hope to commit to adding your worksheet to my weekly paperwork.
very informative, and I love the worksheet you have provided, I will add that hopefully at least once a week to get an idea of numbers
Joni: Great! Doing it once a week is a great idea. I’d love to see what type of changes you see.
Very god advice, Heather. Numbers are important in order to see how your ads/promotions etc are working or not. Your worksheet sounds like a wonderful asset .
Alexandra, thank you. I hope you are able to use the worksheet to get a snapshot of what you are tracking now and where you can make small changes that will result in big results.
Great post Heather. I agree with Meryl that paying attention to the numbers does give you the insight you need to make changes for the better. Then you’re able to develop a strategy that works in your favor. Understanding where you are makes a big difference.
Dawn: That is exactly it, it is developing a strategy based on your numbers is the key to really seeing business growth. Thanks for the additional insight.
Great post and advice. Taking small steps and focusing on our numbers does allow you to see where and how you can improve your business. You are right, there is so much to keep up with in this busy world that we forget some of the most basic principals to our financial growth.
Meryl – Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Yes it is so easy to focus on other things. Particularly the bright shinny objects or latest thing. Business is about math and how to make the numbers work for you.