Measuring performance; very key!
A critical activity in young businesses should be estimating performance. This is very essential to determine if the business is actually growing or not. More than just determining growth; it will be more useful to know the pace at which the business is growing or otherwise. The key action here is to put in place specific metrics at the start of the business to measure growth. For instance, an online business may find it useful tracking the number of unique visitors on their website, number of converted customers (that actually paid for a product), returning customers (who have patronized more than once), bouncing customers (those who visit without carrying out a single activity before leaving the website) etc. These metrics will go a long way upon further analysis to inform the business on possible trends, which will help the business managers understand the business more and make better informed decisions.
Performance in every division of a business must be monitored; from product performance in the market to people’s performance as well as financial performance.
Performance is useless if it is left unmeasured.
Performance monitoring must be part of the culture of every starting business if the business intends to stand a chance to scale.
Ensure that simple models are put in place to measure performance across board. As the business expands, the performance measurement framework will become more robust and complex as expected. Do not start complex; you will end up confused. However, make sure you measure performance on a regular basis.
Elias is a transforming man looking to build businesses that will last forever. He delights in exploring the key elements that enables starting businesses scale flexibly. He has 3 years+ consulting experience with concept-phase startups and SMEs across South-west Nigeria.
