Why I Record My Business Statistics Every Week

I attended a weekly breakfast business meeting one morning, and was reminded of the importance of recording statistics.

Statistics take the guesswork out of management. You base your management decisions solely on them.

I am afraid I have been a bit lax lately. My excuse was that I have been very busy.

Not true, in fact.

Yes, I always have something to do, but that does not mean all my actions are productive actions. Ha ha.

What being lax usually means

It was also useful to be reminded that being lax usually means you are not facing something. Something that would be brought to your attention when you do a statistics analysis, and then you would have to deal with it.

So I have now faced my own situations. I brought my statistics up to date, did my analysis and made a plan for the coming week.

I feel much more at cause now.

What I do each week

I am in business for myself, so I am also the owner and manager. I need to manage all that a business normally entails. That means I need to know what is going on in every part of the business, not just the production and bookkeeping side.

Statistics are the way to do this. At the end of each week I calculate mine, then analyse them to see what is happening in the business, good or bad. That gives me the data I need to plan the next week, month and year.

What counts as a statistic

Any area of any business can, and should, report statistics.

Statistics are numerical values of production. For example: how many pieces of promotion have been distributed, how much income, the value of production delivery, how many lines of news articles, how many staff, and so on.

Report them and graph them for any given period.

• Weekly: you have a tighter grip on your company and can change things faster.
• Monthly: any changes might already have had a destructive result that takes time to turn around.
• Yearly: useless for day-to-day management.

It might take a while to figure out which statistics to record. That is time well spent for the success of your business.

How to read them

Once they are recorded and graphed, analyse them on a regular basis. Is the line going up, or down?

If it is going up, you want to know why, so you can strengthen those actions and keep it going up. If it is going down, you want to know why, so you can fix it.

You analyse by comparing statistics against each other, and by finding out WHEN a change occurred. That WHEN helps you find the WHAT and WHY. Once you know those, you can decide the next actions.

Statistics give you FACTUAL DATA with which to manage your business.

Try it!

As always, keep it simple and... Flourish and Prosper

Lisa