How time flies! Where are those goals we set at the beginning of the year? Are our businesses merely surviving or are we creating real traction with our business growth strategies? Not sure? Well here are 6 ways to find out.
Review your own expectations
The most rudimentary way to gauge business success is to measure against your personal realistic expectations. Did you start the year with a vision board? Or perhaps you wrote your business goals for the year on a sheet of paper or in a book? Whatever the case, it’s time to review your realistic expectations against the realities of your current business position.
Check your business financial statements
As we shared in our e-book “Financial terms every girl boss must know” (in case you missed it you can download our two ebooks “financial terms every girl boss must know” and 100 books every entrepreneur must read by clicking here Attach 1 and here Attach II - there are three main financial statements which help you gain clarity on the financial position of your business. The income statement measures the profitability of your business during a certain time period by showing your business’s profits and losses. The balance sheet shows your business’s financial health, measuring how much you owe and own. And, the cash flow statement shows how liquid cash is at your business. The state of these three statements should be a great indicator on just how well (or not) your business is doing
Gauge customer satisfaction
Customers are what keep your business going. Are you losing or gaining customers? Are your day one clients still with you or are they shopping at your competitors store? What keeps the customers you have coming back? How happy are your customers with your services and products? To find the answers to these questions, consider calling customers you haven’t seen in a while or send an email to those who ordered recently.
Measure your personal growth
What new business skill have you learnt this year? How has your business improved because of your personal learning and development? As a business owner, you must be on a continuous cycle of learning which directly impacts on your business growth and profitability.
Measure employee satisfaction
Sadly, our employees may be the most overlooked portion of our business and we can get to a point where we take them for granted. However, your employees are uniquely placed and can give critical feedback on the state of your business process and on what’s working and what’s not. Also ensuring that your staff are satisfied and aren’t spending all day looking for a new job instead of putting time into growing your business is key. Consider carrying out a performance review to gauge employee satisfaction.
Gauge the market
A great way of tracking the success of your business is to measure it against the market. How has the economy affected the general market conditions of your sector? How are other businesses in your sector managing through the economic crisis? Are there new innovative marketing strategies being employed in your sector you should know about? Answering some of these questions will help you gauge just how well your business is performing within its sector.
