Why is it that school teachers measure the performance of their students on a regular basis? Why do sports teams or elite athletes regularly measure many aspects of their performance everyday? The answer is simple. You don’t know what you don’t know! Put simply it is near impossible for you to improve anything unless you first know where you are at. Teachers recognise this, elite athletes achieve personal bests and world records this way, and sports teams win premierships/titles through measuring and improving all facets of their overall performance.
So why is a business any different? Well to tell you the truth it is exactly the same. However for over 75% of the businesses we work with on a day to day basis measuring is one of the lowest priorities. Why? Many business owners see the need to measure as a chore and a cost: “I cannot measure everything because it will take up too much of our time”:”Why do I need to measure things if my turnover is increasing?”
However what we have been able to demonstrate time after time is that if you invest the time in simplistically measuring key elements of your business you will begin to improve the performance of the business in more than seven (7) different ways. Later in this report I will use some real business examples to demonstrate what I am talking about.
So what are the seven (7) different areas to begin measuring immediately? These areas are what we call the 7 Profit Drivers of your business. Put simply there are 7 key areas that drive the profit of your business. So the better you measure elements within each area the better you know your current base line, and the easier it becomes to improve overall performance.