The other night eating dinner we had an interesting experience which relates to running a business (it does….I promise).

My youngest son is usually pretty slow in eating – generally he’s the last to finish his evening meal.

But the other night, things were different.  We were talking about what we did during the day etc, and didn’t notice how quickly he was eating.  He finished before the rest of us had half eaten our meals.

And the second he finished, he picked up the stopwatch that was sitting on the table next to him, stopped it, and announced that it had only taken him 7 minutes and 22 seconds to finish his tea.  Up to that point, we hadn’t noticed the stopwatch and hadn’t noticed how well he was eating.

When I was doing the MBA one of the phrases I learnt was ‘what gets measured gets done’.  It’s true and my son proved it.  You see, he’s a numbers freak.  He’s just started school and can do maths that kids a few years older would struggle with.  He gets motivated by timing himself.  If I want him to have a quick bath, I’ll let him know I’m timing him.  If we want him to get dressed quickly, we’ll time him.

For my son, time is a measure that motivates him.

In business, there are measures that can lead to success.  In a service business there are certain activities you do that can lead to certain desirable outcomes.  An activity could be something like a phone call or writing a proposal.

One thing I learnt many years ago is that you can’t completely control the outcomes of your activities, but you can control the activity that you do.  In the financial planning business, we’re measuring things like the number of calls we make, new client referrals, number of financial plans we produce etc.  I know that if we’re doing the right activities, the results will follow.

I know that if we measure these figures weekly, I’m more motivated to make sure they happen, and less likely to put them off.  And I know that each of these figures has an impact on the other.  If we’re not calling people we don’t get enough appointments.  If we’re not doing enough appointments, we’re not writing financial plans.  And if we’re not producing financial plans, we’re not making money.

So what are the things in your business that need to be measured? In the blogging world you may measure the number of posts you produce, the number of comments you make on other blogs, the number of pillar articles you write etc.  These are all activities that you can control.  You can then measure the outcomes of those activities i.e. new subscribers or visitors to your site.  Over time you’ll begin to see how the various components influence each other, and you’ll have a better idea of what you need to do to achieve your business goals.

Have a think about your business.  What are the things you need to measure that lead to success?  Let us know what the relevant things are for your business.

Photo credit wwarby