What Do Your Numbers Say About You?
By Gail Doby, ASID
CVO & Co-Founder, Gail Doby Coaching & Consulting & Design Success University
Photo by Dana McGrath
If I were to ask you how your business is doing, would you be able to tell me? More importantly, how would you know? I hope the answer would be that you have the numbers to prove it. I know, however, that is not always the case.
There are many ways to measure the success of a business. You can compare how you are doing this year compared to last year, or to your best (or worst) year. You can guesstimate how you are doing compared to your competitors or to the industry as a whole. The most meaningful measures, however, are the ones based on your business plans. Those are the numbers that tell you whether you are achieving what you want to achieve, not just how you stand relative to others’ performance.
A well-constructed business plan contains specific targets you want to achieve to grow your business. Those might be the number of additional clients or projects you seek to gain during the year, how much additional revenue or profit you expect to earn, adding a new specialty or line of business, hiring staff, or growing recognition for your brand. Whatever they are, progress toward those targets can be defined and measured concretely by collecting and analyzing data, input and feedback each month. That data will tell you how the business is performing and whether your plan is still on track.
Whether you plan or not, you will get results (i.e., so many clients, so many projects, so much revenue, so much profit, etc.). Those results reveal how well you’ve planned (or haven’t planned) for your success and how well you’re doing executing those plans. If you are not getting the results you hoped for, then it’s time to review your plans, figure out what’s not working, and try something else.
Some designers tell me they are not numbers people or can’t be bothered with pouring over reports with a lot of figures. There are lots of tools available to transform those numbers into graphic images that will show you what you need to know. If you don’t know how to use them, pay someone who does to produce the images for you. Think about it: If you don’t measure and track results, you are like someone driving down the road blindfolded. The outcome is not likely to be a pleasant one.
