Do you want to keep track of your business but don’t quite know how to get started? This post will show you my three-step process for tracking your business.
When it comes to keeping track of your business, the key is to keep things as simple as possible. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you try to track every single thing or try to use some complex systems.
Keeping things simple and being clear about why you are tracking certain metrics is the key to success.
One of the biggest benefits of tracking your business performance is that it helps you to identify areas for growth and improvement. It’s always better to make decisions for your business when you have hard data to support your decisions.
So, if you’re tired of just winging it and you are ready to do a deep dive into your business, let’s get started.
1. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO TRACK
The first step to begin tracking your business is to decide what you want to track.
As I already mentioned, there are so many metrics to track in a business. However, there’s no way you can possibly track them all. Moreover, some metrics don’t have a huge impact on your business.
So, how do you decide what to track?
Well, here are two simple tips or rules you can use to make a decision.
- Make sure the metric you want to track can provide you with enough relevant data to analyze. And, the data should be something that can have a sizeable impact on your business.
- Track metrics that can help you grow your customer base and increase your revenue and profit. Think marketing and sales.
If you follow these simple tips, you should be able to pin down the metrics that are worth tracking in your business.
Lastly, you don’t have to track everything at once if you’re new to this.
You can start with a few metrics, start tracking them, then add some more when you feel more confident or without feeling overwhelmed.
Deciding what to track is the first step to keeping track of your business.
2. DECIDE HOW TO TRACK THE METRICS
Once you have decided what you want to track, the next step is to determine how you are going to do the tracking.
My advice to you is to stick with simple tools, to begin with. However, if you have used more advanced tools or software in the past, you can go for it.
What you use to keep track of your business metrics depends on what you’re trying to track. For example, all you need to start tracking your website traffic is Google Analytics, and if you want to go deeper, you can also use Google Search Console.
Similarly, if you want to start tracking where your sales come from, maybe all you need is Google Sheets.
The reason why I encourage you to keep things simple is that far too often, small business owners invest in or set up these elaborate systems that they end up not using. A simple but effective system that’s used consistently is better than a system that’s complex or time-consuming.
Remember this before you decide how to track your business metrics.
Psst… if you want to learn more about tracking your business and the benefits, check out my training, Track Your Way to Profitability: What You Need to Track for Maximum Growth.
3. HOW OFTEN TO TRACK THE METRICS
The third step in this three-step business tracking process is to decide how often you want to track a particular metric.
Do you want to track daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly?
While there’s no right or wrong answer, remember that you need enough data to analyze for it to be meaningful or helpful to you.
You can’t gather or extrapolate much from a week’s or even a month’s worth of data (depending on the data). So, always allow enough time to pass before you make any big decisions from the data you’ve collected.
Some metrics like website traffic can be tracked daily, weekly, or monthly. While sales metrics are better done weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Personally, I prefer monthly.
You can try out different time frames to see what works best for you and your business.
Tracking your business performance is not something that is done in isolation. You have to consider the totality of your business.
Whatever you decide to do or track, just get on with it. The sooner you start tracking your business, the sooner you will know what is working for you (and where you should double your efforts).
So, there you have it. How to keep track of your small business.
Do you keep track of your business? What do you find the most challenging?
Don’t forget you can grab my training, Track Your Way to Profitability: What You Need to Track for Maximum Growth for just $9.