Let’s talk about the importance of having proper visibility of the key numbers in your business.
Suppose you don’t have something that is simple and straightforward that gives you an understanding of how your business is performing holistically. In that case, you’re not going to be able to make the best decisions as the business owner, and your management team won’t be able to react and support you in solving problems and ensuring that your business achieves its growth goals.
Ladies and gentlemen, what we’re talking about is having something called a KPI dashboard. So this is a collection of the key numbers across all of the different functions of your business that help you understand, anticipate and manage the performance of your business.
Most businesses find themselves in one of two places either there’s a complete absence of information, and they’re like an information vacuum, or they find themselves in a situation where there’s just so much information it’s a bit overwhelming that it’s so difficult to be able to derive any sort of meaning or value from. What you need is something that is simple, straightforward, and systemized in your business, something that can help you understand what’s going on at a glance.
You want to be able to understand the top two to three numbers across all of those different functions, how those numbers should be performing in terms of targets and what the reality is. That way, when you’re under pressure, you have a tool that you can look at, and at a glance, you’ll be able to pick up what’s working and what is not working.
As a management team, your ability to be able to look at the right information, pick up problems early, and being able to react to those things instead of sleepwalking into problems is absolutely critical if you want to grow a great business.
So what is the quality of reporting like in your business? Do you have something straightforward and simple that gives you a proper view holistically of what’s going on? Do you and your team pay enough attention to those numbers? If not, you’ve got some work to do to get a proper dashboard in place, or you should be using the tools that you have properly.
