If you're not measuring now, despite knowing how important it is, then something is obviously holding you back. Make it easy on yourself and focus on just one result you want to be better in your business and then have the discipline to make that result better.
The measuring is really just an enabler in the process, not the reason for it.
If you treat the following little business dashboard checklist as a process and keep rolling through it, before long you'll not only have a collection of powerful measures for your business, you'll also have improved your business performance too.
Setting up a simple business dashboard for your business involves just seven easy steps:
1. Choose just one result that's important to your business. (Don't delegate this).
2. Decide the best way to measure that result, and how frequently it should be measured. (Don't delegate this).
3. Source the data for that measure. Get as much history as you can too, so that you can create an instant time series and have something to compare your initial results with. (Delegate this).
4. Set up a routine to capture the data in a simple spreadsheet. (Delegate this).
5. Set up a graph in the spreadsheet that automatically updates with new data as it's added. (Delegate this).
6. Review your measure for a few weeks, until you find a way to make it improve. (Don't delegate this).
7. Go back to step 1, to choose another result.
If your one page strategic plan is your map to success, then your business dashboard is your navigational system.
TAKE ACTION:
If you’re ready to get started, I’ve put together a free business dashboard template for you to download. So there’s no need to mess around with formatting, just choose a measure and then start collating the data (or better still delegate it!). I've included a few sample measures for you too.
There are an infinite number of results worth measuring in any business. What’s on your business dashboard?
“ If you're not measuring now, despite knowing how important it is, then something is obviously holding you back. Make it easy on yourself and focus on just one result you want to be better in your business and then have the discipline to make that result better. ”
Stacey Barr is a specialist in performance measurement, helping micro and small business owners to move their business results from where they are, to where they want them to be, using powerful, transformational measures.
