The Value of Data in Your Business: The Present
We're talking about data, and in the last video we looked at understanding data relative to the past or historical financial statements. Today we're going take a look at data in the present, and the next time we'll take a look at data for the future. So, what is it that we pay attention to in the present?
The Value is in The Metrics
A lot of companies will have something they call a scoreboard, scorecard or dashboard. There are many different words for it. What it really boils down to is maybe 7 to 12 indicators or metrics that you want to look at on a weekly basis and focus in on. These are things that you really need to know.Think of it as if I had be out of the business for an extended period of time and you can pass me just one sheet of paper a week. What would I need to see on that piece of paper every week to understand whether or not my business was doing well or not? What might those metrics be? It might be cash balance. Have I got a minimum cash balance in my account? How large are my accounts payable? How many employees were sick or delinquent or didn't show up? How many disciplinary actions had to occur? How many customers are in our sales pipeline? How many sales are we converting? How many calls have we made? There are a plethora of metrics that one can look at.
Keep It Simple
The question is, do you have a scorecard or a dashboard that you look at in you business that really identifies some key core metrics to help you understand the health of your business that you look at on a weekly basis at a minimum? You need to be able to do that. If you've never done it before, it's something that you want to do. Simply sit down and ask yourself what you would want or need to see on this single sheet of paper one a week in order to know that everything is ok. It's as easy as that, but you need to be paying attention to this data all the time.I encourage you to develop a scorecard or a dashboard to the extent that you haven't already. If you've already done one, take another look at it and make sure that what you have there is what you really need. You don't have to accumulate all the numbers yourself, you can have your team do some of it. There should just be some data there for you to look at on a weekly basis.Join me next time where we'll talk about the value of future data. Thanks so much for visiting and feel free to check out my other videos for more ideas on how to break through and reach the next level in your business. And, if you like this video, please subscribe.