Why do you need to measure things in a small business? Because if you don’t, you can’t improve on it. So, what sort of things are useful to know for an SME? Well, that depends on the industry, so, I won’t get industry specific, as that is what we would ultimately need to decide with each client on what that will be, however, as a quick summary, these are very popular amongst successful businesses:
- Break-Even Analysis
- Quick Asset Ratios for liquidity of the business
- Days Sales Outstanding
- Revenue per team member
- GM%
- NP%
- Labour Efficiency ratios
- Recurring event trends
- Extraordinary events that impact the business and by how much
- Lead generation sources
- Conversion Rates to sales
- Average $ Sales
- Number of transactions in a year
- Outstanding Proposals Summary
- Sales per sales person
The above are generic and not industry specific. For industry specific measurement we would gauge on what is important to know so that the business can get a tangible benefit and go about implementing a system that suits.
To be a professional in your industry, you must be professional across all areas that you control and to control it, you need to measure it.
