I hope you don’t drive your vehicle with the dashboard removed or totally not working. It would make driving a stressful and risky, to say the least. Correct?
So why do so many people drive their business with no “dashboard” telling them what is going on then? Do they like the adrenaline feel of not knowing when they might run out of “fuel” (profit) or if they are “speeding” (over trading) perhaps? I like to think not. I believe most don’t know how to put a dashboard in place, what dials should be on the dashboard and what is a safe measure and what is the danger zone to avoid.
With modern accounting packages, many of which have live feeds from your bank accounts, there is no excuse for not being able to monitor your numbers on a more regular basis. Correctly set up and with a bit of training, you will be able to build a simple dashboard of what is happening in your business from a financial point-of-view. With a bit more thought non-financial numbers can be monitoring as well to keep a check on the other areas of your business, such as marketing, sales and field operations. For a simple list of key performance indicators (KPI’s) that you could consider adding to your dashboard CLICK HERE to download a 1 page summary.
Once you have done this and have a feel for what these KPI numbers mean for your business, a really powerful addition to your dashboard is a “radar screen”. Like an aircraft has a Forward Looking Radar screen to warn of possible storms ahead (or enemy planes in a fighter aircraft), your radar screen can help you predict what may happen in the future. Would that be useful? Imagine being able to predict your longer term forward workload and ramp up or ramp down your field operation to suit! For example, adding figures like building consent numbers to your dashboard may help predict what the pressure on delivery may be in 4 to 6 months.
What other indicators can you think of that could be on your radar screen? Email me and let me know your ideas. Thanks.
Andy Burrows – The Trades Coach