“I’m not good with numbers.” For years I told myself this. Every math class I ever took I ended up failing and I just sort of accepted it for what it was. They just never seemed to click with me until I realized this: if you want to run a successful business, you need to get good at it.
This isn’t to say every entrepreneur out there has to be some sort of math wiz or numbers genius, not at all. The tough stuff is for accountants to handle. But to understand your metrics in a way that you can look at the information in front of you and apply it back to real life situations in ways that benefit your business, that is what you must master.
Many small business owners are afraid of their numbers. They don’t look at any metrics at all and run things by “gut feelings” or what have you. That’s all fine and dandy if you don’t care whether or not your business thrives. But if you really want to see that growth in your business and find ways to move it forward, analyzing your numbers is absolutely necessary. It can feel like a big, daunting task to analyze any sort of information. The key is knowing when and where to be looking, and how you can use it to your advantage.
There are three different areas of metrics that should be focused on:
- Marketing – Take emails, for example. You want to be looking at your open rates. But not only the open rates, because those can become skewed, but also your click-through rates as well. How many people are opening and actually viewing/reading through your emails. Another metric to look at in marketing is your lead pages or lead magnets. What are the conversion rates? This is when an action (someone signs up, gives their email) takes place in the content on a particular page. For your website, look at which pages get the most views and make an analysis from there on how you can get views up on other, less-popular pages. Bounce-rates are also good to look at, they tell you how many people quickly leave a page. Why might this be? Simple things like wording or layout can have a big effect on popularity.
- Sales – Look at your products and/or services. Which have the most profitability? Which ones are less so? These questions can help decipher what is working and what isn’t. You should be looking at your gross sales versus net sales as well, and be able to know the difference.
- Accounting – This is where you start to look at your expenses. How much are you spending? How does that relate to how much cash flow your are bringing in? Maybe you’re spending too much on one vendor and it’s time to switch to something more in your budget.
All of these relate back and tie in with one another, which is another reason it’s super important that you teach yourself how to read these numbers. They can help you to help your business in the right direction instead of staying stuck, or worse, going backwards. But it’s important to also know which metrics to focus on. Do a little research on what key metrics are super important in your specific business and pay attention to them. Once you know what to look for, there are plenty of tools and software out there to help you to keep track of the numbers or just to better understand what it is you’re looking at.
Don’t let your numbers paralyze you. They are what they are, your business in black and white. To ignore this vital information that is readily available to you at all times would be foolish. Your numbers can help you, you just need to help yourself first and take the first step into setting up your metric-analyzing plan.
If you enjoyed this episode and in some way it inspired you to start taking action, I’d love to hear about it and know your biggest take away. Send me a DM on Instagram @theresacantley and let me know what your favorite part was.
Don’t forget to take advantage of my FREE download, 10 Tips Towards Massive Growth, to learn how to jump-start your business to get back on it’s track towards success.
I would also love if you subscribed to the podcast and left a review at https://theresacantley.com/itunes
If there is a topic you would love me to talk about or a question you may have send it to us at theresa@theresacantley.com and we’ll feature it on one of our future episodes.
To download a transcription of this episode click here.
Schedule a call with me – Click Here!
Connect with me on Instagram & Facebook!
Episode 78 – Betting on Yourself
Episode 77 – How Our Experiences Help Shape Us.
