There’s one thing that every business owner has in common: they want their business to succeed.
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, what product you sell, or what problem you solve. Every business owner wants to rise to the top…
…But how?
Most people know what success feels like… but what does success look like?
Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t have to be super complicated to figure out. Because, although success could look slightly different depending on what you do, almost every business can track success with one thing: the right metrics.
Why High-Level Success Metrics Are Important
Using the right metrics to track how your business is doing is a surefire way to tell if you’re growing your business. They’re trackable, concrete, easy to understand, and they take the guesswork out of the process.
You can track where you are right now and how that compares to this time last month or last year. And, most importantly, you can use those numbers to project what success will look like a year later.
When we map out what went right and what went wrong with our business, looking to the past is great. But none of it matters unless we figure out how to take what we learned from the past and apply it to the future. Tracking the right metrics gives you the milestones and checkpoints your need to hit by helping you evaluate exactly what you were able to do in the past.
Reliable ways to quantify success can’t be undervalued. In an evolving business world where you are always looking for an edge over your competition, it can often be better to look inside instead of outside. Tracking your success metrics allows you to bring something concrete to the table when you are figuring out what worked really well and what didn’t work so well at all.
And the best part is you don’t have to spend a dime to track your own metrics. It only takes time and a little bit of effort.
What Metrics Matter
Truthfully, there are lots of metrics that could matter for your business.
But there are some general metrics that are helpful for every business to keep track of. But that also largely depends on if you’re a project/service-based business or an eCommerce/retail business.
Project and Service-Based business will need to track:
- Revenue month-by-month
- Sales count month-by-month
- Lead conversion rate
- No-show/cancellation rate
- Landing page conversion rate
- The average cost per click and click-through rate
Ecommerce and retail businesses will need to track:
- Revenue month-by-month
- Sales count month-by-month
- Unique visitors by month
- Average ad cost per click and click-through rate
These are the stats that matter the most for your business because they are the ones that will give you the bird’s-eye view of when things are going right. These metrics are very broad and account for a culmination of all of the work that you’re doing. This means they all translate to whether there is money trickling into your business’s bank account.
Let’s do a deep dive as to why these stats are important.
Revenue Month-by-Month
Revenue month-by-month is the metric that every business should be tracking, regardless of industry or niche, to measure and project growth. It’s literally the number that tells you how much money is flowing into your business, and one that you definitely already have your eye on. Without tacking it, you’re going to be underprepared to do even basic business analysis.
There is only one part of this metric that could use explanation: the timespan. Although some companies may elect to do a formal evaluation of their revenue on a yearly basis, monthly evaluation is more effective. That way you can see the way your revenue fluctuates with different promotions or marketing strategies, and then you can learn how to analyze and adapt those strategies in a timely manner.
If you try to track it on a weekly basis, you’re going to risk overreacting to inconsequential shifts. And the last thing you want to do is drive yourself insane.
Monthly tracking is the way to go. As for finding those numbers, you need to look no further than your books or your bank statements. If you have a designated accountant, ask them. It’s that simple, but it really is important.
We will touch on month-by-month sales, unique visitors, cost per click, and much more in the second part of this article. SreodaPop is ready to help you with any of your web design and development needs and much more.
