Measuring What Matters in Your Business: Do You Know Your Critical Numbers & KPIs?

About a year ago, my team and I dove deep into the world of internal operations. I had realized (the hard way) that if I was going to build a truly sustainable business for the long-haul, I would need to slow down long enough to develop and implement the right systems and processes.

But why would a big-picture systems-oriented entrepreneur and project manager like me avoid such obvious ingredients to success? I hate to admit it, but it’s because I didn’t know my numbers.

Even worse, there were days I didn’t want to know my numbers. All I knew was our monthly expenses exceeded our income again, I was aggravated and exhausted, and I couldn’t seem to get off the proverbial hamster wheel.

I also started to see the correlation between struggling in business and lacking systems. I noticed, as a leader, I could easily become the bottleneck without having systems in place.

Then it occurred to me, halfway through an intense 6-month operations program led by Stacy Tuschl, we just needed to figure out what was most important, then measure and support that! To get there, we stepped back and honed our values, clarified our goals, and revised our service offerings based on client demand and scalability. We were finally focused, and our clients could sense the difference!

Even though I faced a major personal setback in Quarter 4 of 2023 when my amazing mom became very ill and passed away, we were able to bounce back and still launch our new virtual membership program for busy organizational leaders in Quarter 1 of 2024 thanks to our newfound clarity and focus.

As a CEO, I feel so much better knowing my company’s Critical Numbers and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The concept of a Critical Number in this context can be credited to Jack Stack, author of The Great Game of Business. It is a clearly defined goal related to your core income producing activities that can both reveal your weaknesses (if you fall short) and represent “winning” for your organization. Primary metrics by which to assess your overall progress and success, Critical Numbers actually “move the needle” in your business.

To give you more concrete examples, the two major Critical Numbers we track now in my business are 1. Number of active INTERNSHIP INSIDER member organizations and 2. Number of young professionals participating in our spring and fall Career & Leadership Accelerators and summer Career & Leadership Conference.

I love thinking about our organization in these three major areas: 1. Marketing & Sales, 2. Fulfillment and 3. Operations– and creating a short list of the right KPIs to track in each area.

KPIs are quantitative metrics in more specific business areas used to track progress toward a desired outcome. A Marketing & Sales KPI example could be Conversion Rate (vs. number of social media posts), a Fulfillment KPI might be Customer Retention Rate (vs. number of registrants), and an Operations KPI could be Gross Profit Margin (vs. gross revenue).

How do YOU define success? What are you and your team members measuring en route to success? Perhaps most importantly, are those metrics getting you where you want to go? Said another way, are you measuring what matters, or just going through the motions like I was?

If what we focus on expands and what we measure gets done, what will you and your team track now to get where you want to go?

When you consistently measure what is most important, your business will grow!

To Your Success,
Amy

P.S. If you are a busy organizational leader interested in learning how to leverage interns to meet your growth goals, email: [email protected] for info about our FREE Live webinar coming up on Friday, April 26th!