I once had a prospective client send me a 47 page KPI* report. Yeah, if that didn’t get your attention, you’re in the wrong place.
A 47 page KPI report for a $1.3M business.
Your business should be simple, easy, and profitable. 47 page reports don’t make it any of those.
When he sent it to me and we got on a call he said, I don’t know what to do with this. I replied that I didn’t either.
Try the distant island test. If you were stuck on a distant island, say the Big Island where I am right now, and you could only get 5 numbers sent to you each week to know if your business was healthy, or you had to come home right away, what would they be?
What are the 5 numbers, the 5 KPIs, that would give you an instant read on the health of your business?
Do you track them?
Do you review them regularly?
Do you have targets for each of them?
Do you know what to do when they are not on target?
If your answer to any of those 4 questions is “No”, then start there.
And don’t let anyone tell you it has to be more complicated.
For additional food for thought, check out Seth Godin’s “False Metrics Appearing Real”.
*KPI = Key Performance Indicators (or simply Metrics)