Using a Dashboard to Monitor Your Business

I consider the development and use of a dashboard as a best practice because it really helps you to keep your finger on the pulse of your business. Many small businesses don’t check in on their operation often. Granted, if you’re checking your financials and marketing results at least quarterly, that’s a big improvement over doing an annual checkup. A better practice is to monitor it monthly however, and there are some elements of your business that you may want to monitor weekly. After watching the changes from month to month, or week to week, take a step back at the six month mark and look strategically and objectively at what all the monthly incremental changes might mean.

What’s a dashboard? Dashboards are used by many large businesses to monitor their business throughout the year. Dashboards strive for simplicity of presentation of data related to your Key Performance Indicators, or KPI. Key Performance Indicators include areas such as: Marketing, Sales, Financials, and Operations. The data is often presented as trend lines, charts, and other visuals. This is how they came to be known as dashboards – when driving your car your dashboard provides at-a-glance insight into critical areas of the car’s operation. And so it is with your business dashboard also. Some of the dashboard software that’s available even prepares the data to look like gauges that look like they would be found on your car’s dashboard. These gauges can be superfluous, as long as you have the trend lines. Recognizing trends improves your ability to strategize and your decision-making as you grow your business. You’ll also notice areas requiring more attention. This timely recognition allows you to consider an intervention when an issue is small and easier to resolve.

What are key areas to include in your dashboard? I’ve already identified several possible categories to include, and this can be variable depending on the nature of your business. If you are a solopreneur, you might not need to use the Operations/HR category, for example. It can be helpful to work with a business advisor or consultant to develop your dashboard as these professionals provide objectivity and other perspectives that can be hard for a business owner to achieve. Within each category you will choose the elements that you feel are important to monitor. Take some time to look at your business strategically. This is how you will determine what the key categories are. From there you’ll drill down into more specific items to monitor. You can see that this means you are evaluating and analyzing your business – a mindset that you want as an active part of your business.

What specific items would you monitor in each category? I’ll make suggestions here, and you are not limited to these. You may have others that have more meaning and greater impact on your business and so those are the ones you should use. Again, this gets back to thinking strategically.

Marketing – What do you use as marketing tools to build your customer base? What do you use as tools to maintain your customer base? Total marketing cost?
Website analytics – search engine rank, number of unique visitors, amount of time visitors spend on your site, blog subscribers
Social media – for each channel that you use you might track friends, likes, followers, connections etc.; you would also want to include a measure of engagement such as post feedback, tweets, comments etc.; you might include a measure of the time you spend interacting on social media; advertising using social media channels (Facebook ads for example)
Print advertising – dollars spent; contacts from print advertising
Newsletter – number of subscribers; number of unsubscribes

Sales – Where is your income coming from? What offerings are strong and which are weak? Is your sales funnel effective?
Prospects, Conversions, Retention – how many calls, emails and other requests for information about your business have you had; out of those, how many have become customers; and out of those how many have stayed for a specified timeframe? The specified timeframe comes from your determination of how long means that they are a loyal customer
Products, Services

Financials – You may be monitoring these regularly through your accounting software.
Income, Expense, Profit/Loss, Long-term debt, Short-term debt, Assets, Net worth, Ratios

Operations – Is your business operating efficiently?
Facilities – Is your business space being used to its maximum
Human Resources – Number of employees, employee hours, employee cost

By taking a look at these categories and suggested elements, you can see the value of having all this information in one place. These are elements that we know we should monitor, and probably even know where to collect some of it. Through developing your dashboard you will learn exactly where to collect it all and now will have it in one location. You will be able to see the inter-related issues more quickly and may come to additional possible actions to take as a result.

How do I build my dashboard? You can build your dashboard by using Excel, and there are also software dashboards available. Many of these are for large corporate ventures and not as appropriate for micro-enterprise. Mr. Dashboard is one product that provides an easy to use excel interface that transfers itself automatically into charts and graphs that visually display the numbers that you’ve entered. It provides for 25 metrics, though if you are monitoring more than 25 items you can use more than one chart of 25. In this case you can separate categories out from each other. When you’re first starting out you’ll want to get your feet wet with your dashboard before getting highly detailed.

Are you using a dashboard? What do you include on yours? Do you have favorite software for this, and if so, please share with us here.

Dream the Work

You're not always going to be successful, but if you're scared to fail, you don't deserve to be successful" -- Charles Barkley

For many, the idea of running their own business never enters their mind; they are happy and content working in a good paying job where they have benefits and know what will happen every day when they clock in. But for others, the dream of being their own boss is uppermost in their thoughts. Whatever the reason, they have the goal of being a success at something that has their hand print on it. Like me, many have known from childhood that they wanted to control their own lives based on being their own boss. Each day would be a new day with different challenges and excitements.

But what really comes with being the boss is a lot more than excitement: it's hard work, long hours, persistence in the wake of adversity and a never give up attitude. Anyone thinking that they're going to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is probably going to be out of luck. Nothing worthwhile ever happens without hard work, planning and time. But even then, there are other issues that need to be taken into consideration.

One of the biggest challenges, I believe, that people run into when they're starting out (and even later in the cycle) is fear. The fear of failure is that irrational fear that we will not succeed, and unfortunately, it is often something that we all experience. It's human nature. And with that fear comes an inability to more forward. There's the dream, and then there's the fear of not being able to succeed. What happens if no one wants what you're selling? What if you can't make a living at your desired business? Will you lose your home? What about the benefits you may be giving up by quitting a job? These are all fears that may crop up to stop you from moving forward.

In order to get past these fears one needs to figuratively "bite the bullet." Success or failure is in your hands -- you just need to do your homework, set goals, figure out what your customers want, and work towards creating the perceived need for your product or service. Most of all, you need to understand that it is going to take time, effort and money to get where you want to be. How to do this? There are lots of people and books out there that show you maps to accomplish this work; it's up to you to find what resonates with you -- what makes sense to you and what seems doable for you.

Don't try to do it on your own, but search out those that believe in you and your product/service; those that are willing to help mentor you and guide you along the path. Keep an open mind -- listen with your ears, your mind and your heart. But be wise; listen to your gut as well, making sure that what you're being told makes sense to you. Don't try to be everything to everybody. Stay true to your goals and your vision. It will see you through.

Forget the “Recovery” it’s a “Transition”.

I continue to talk with a number of small business owners who still think that if they just hang hunker down and just hang on a little longer that the economy will return to normal. That is not going to happen. As Thomas Friedman says in his book “The World is Flat,” the transition that the US is going through will be painful for many large and small businesses. The key is to take advantage of this transition and rethink your business so that it is positioned to take advantage of this changing economy. But, that will require changing the way they do things, and that is uncomfortable.

Many small business owners and managers prefer comfortable problems vs. uncomfortable solutions. They are willing to live with the problems they have rather than try to re-think how they will change and adapt that business. Another words they just want to keep on doing things exactly the way they were doing them and expect things to get better. The old saying “if you keep on doing what you’ve always done – you’ll keep on getting what you always got” is no longer valid. The new saying is “if you keep on doing what you’ve always done – you will get less!”

One way to begin rethinking your business is to hold a retreat with all employees and managers.
The purpose of this retreat is to put together a new plan and prepare to implement that plan.

So how do we change our business paradigms? Paradigms are common. Every business owner or manager has a set of business paradigms that govern the way they think and act towards the situations they find themselves in. Paradigms are functional. They help us distinguish what is important and what is not.

Have you ever heard the saying “I’ll believe it when I see it?” Well, the paradigm effect reverses the common sense relationship between seeing and believing. Another words, our paradigms can cause us to “only see what we believe,” as a result, we are unable to clearly see the situation as it really is, but only as we perceive it to be. We must remember that there are several different ways we can tackle a business problem. We must be careful not to let our paradigm become “the paradigm” or the only way to do something. Paradigms, too strongly held, can lead to paradigm paralysis, a terminal disease of certainty. It is best to remain flexible in turbulent times and keep what author Joel Barker calls “paradigm pliancy“.


Tom Borg is a popular consultant, author, trainer and coach. He is president of Tom Borg Consulting LLC. He works with companies and organizations to help them attract and retain their clients and customers. He is the author of the book/cd “Making Service Count”. He has delivered his training and coaching in Canada, Saudi Arabia, and throughout the United States. You can contact him at 734-812-0526 email him at: tomborg@tomborgconsulting.com or visit his website at: www.TomBorgConsulting.com

It's Flu Season. Do you know where your tissues are?

The following guidelines come from the Centers for Disease Control. Following these guidelines will help reduce the risk to both you and your staff of being exposed to the flu in the workplace, potentially becoming ill, and transmitting the virus to family members and friends.

Sick employees should stay home—self-isolation will reduce the spread of the flu.

• Advise employees to pay attention to whether they have signs of fever and other signs of influenza-like illness before reporting to work each day. They should notify their supervisor and stay home if they are ill. Employees who are ill should not travel.

• The CDC recommends that employees with influenza-like illness remain at home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8° C] or greater), or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medications. Employees with a significant cough should not come to work even if they have no fever.

• Expect sick employees to be out for 3 to 5 days in most cases, even if antiviral medications are used.

•Employees who work in healthcare settings or work with patients should be off work 7 days after the onset of symptoms or until resolution of symptoms, whichever is LONGER.

• You may require a doctor’s note from employees who call in sick with influenza-like illness for more than 3 days to validate their illness or to return to work if you have concerns about the legitimacy of the employee’s absence.

• Employees who are well but who have a family member at home with influenza can report to work as usual. However, these employees should monitor their health every day, and notify their supervisor and stay home if they become ill.

Sick employees at work should be asked to go home.

The CDC recommends that employees who appear to have an influenza-like illness upon arrival at work or who become ill during the day be promptly separated from other employees and be advised to go home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8° C] or greater), or signs of a fever, without the use of fever-reducing medications.

Teach employees to cover coughs and sneezes.

• Influenza viruses are thought to spread mainly from person to person in respiratory droplets of coughs and sneezes. Emphasize for employees the importance of covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue or, in the absence of a tissue, one’s sleeve. Place posters in the worksite that encourage covering coughs and sneezes.

• Consider providing tissues and no-touch disposal receptacles for employees’ use.

Instruct employees on hand hygiene.

• Influenza may be spread by contact with contaminated hands. Instruct employees to wash their hands frequently with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand cleaner, especially after coughing or sneezing. Place posters in the worksite that encourage hand hygiene.

• Consider providing soap and water and alcohol-based hand sanitizers in the workplace. Ensure that adequate supplies are maintained. If possible, place hand sanitizers in multiple locations or in conference rooms to encourage hand hygiene.

Clean surfaces and items that are more likely to have frequent hand contact.

• Frequently clean all commonly touched surfaces in the workplace, such as workstations, countertops, and doorknobs. Use the cleaning agents that are usually used in these areas and follow the directions on the label.

• No additional disinfection beyond routine cleaning is required.

Strongly encourage employees to get vaccinated.

Encourage your employees to get vaccinated for seasonal influenza.

Take measures to protect employees who are at higher risk for complications from influenza.

People at higher risk for complications from influenza include pregnant women; children under 5 years of age; adults 65 years of age and older; and adults and children who have chronic lung disease (such as asthma), heart disease, diabetes, diseases that suppress the immune system, and other chronic medical conditions.

Inform employees that some people are at higher risk for complications from influenza and that if they are at higher risk for complications, they should notify their healthcare provider if they become ill. Early treatment with antiviral medications is very important for people at high risk because it can prevent hospitalization and death.

(By Sharon Page, The HR Edge, www.hredgeonline.com)

Pick a Corporate Color to Make Your Small Business Memorable

The key goal of your small business’s marketing efforts, particularly when you’re just getting started, is to make an impression, is to be remembered by your customers or potential customers. To be memorable you need to find something your customers or potential customers can identify with, an image that you can own. Then you have to deliver that image in a unique and memorable way, especially in a way that is different from your competitors.

One way you can present your marketing messages in a unique way is to adopt a corporate color and use it on everything you can. Paint your storefront and major interior walls in that color. Print your logo in that color. Use the color on your vehicles, on your baseball caps and coffee mugs, on your signage, on your brochures. Use it on your product packaging. Again, make sure no one else is using that color in your product category in your marketplace.

Just think about it: What’s the dominant color for Coca-Cola? Here’s a hint, it’s close to the same color used by the Target stores. How about John Deere? Or maybe UPS? What about Harley-Davidson? What color do you associate with Shell Oil?

While a corporate color is not a part of any of their official logos, the color, consistently used over time and across their marketing efforts, has become an integral part of their overall identity and has made it easier for customers to recognize their marketing messages, whether a TV ad or an in-store display, whether a delivery truck or uniform worn by an employee.

Dave Ramacitti is co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a new website dedicated to helping small business be smarter marketers.

To receive a free copy of our information-packed special report “58 Free & Low Cost Tricks to Effectively Promote Your New Small Business” visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com.

© 2010 by David F. Ramacitti. Excerpted from The All-Important Stuff You Gotta Do First to Effectively Market Your Small Business © 2009 by David F. Ramacitti.

Best Practice Guides For Small Business

To survive in today's difficult world, it's imperative that organizations have complete understanding and control over what they need to be doing. It is for this reason that I recommend Knowledge Genes.

Knowledge Genes is a unique free website with a library of useful best practice guides (Knowledge Genes) mainly covering business topics. Additionally, users can clearly map their own business processes in terms of WHAT they need to achieve, WHY this is important and exactly HOW this is achieved.

To quote business guru Peter Drucker:

"There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."

"The first question in increasing productivity in knowledge and service work has to be: What is the task? What do we try to accomplish? WHY do it at all?"

For more information go to:

Knowledge Genes