data
MAKING YOUR DATA
Data, numbers, KPI’s, scores, financials – get your data to show you exactly where you are and where you’re going. The analogy I enjoyed the most, when researching this article, was from Gino Wickman, author of Traction;
Picture a small plane flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Halfway across, the captain announces, “I’ve got bad news and I’ve got good news. The bad news is that the gauges aren’t working. We are hopelessly lost, I have no idea how fast we’re flying or in what direction, and I don’t know how much fuel we have left. The good news is that we’re making great time!”
How many of us, as business owners, have felt that feeling – I have no idea what our sales are, how much money are we owed or owe, can we cover the bills, what do we have to pay the government and are we even making a profit. It’s scary, unnerving and stressful, but how do you get out of the malaise and start to get the information you need in a reliable and useful format.
The best place to start is with your accounts. Who does them, what service level agreements do you have, are your books particularly complicated, are they accurate and are they up to date? Another important question is what system you are using to complete the accounts ranging from spreadsheets to cloud based systems such as Xero. In an ideal world the accounts should be up to date and balanced daily. There should be an accurate cash-flow forecast, aged debtor/receivable list and aged creditor/payable list. You should be able to see clearly how much money you have, what is coming in and going out over the next 4 weeks and what margins or requirements you and your company need to meet. If you use a bookkeeper or an accountant you need to make sure that they are on top of your accounts and not leaving everything until it fits into their workload or schedule. You need this information to be able to run your business. Do you have a customer relationship management software system or similar? This keeps a track on your customers, your sales pipeline and your interaction with your customers. Is it up to date? This database, when used properly, will give you an overview of your sales, predicted sales and who your hot prospects are. You can build this information into your ‘small plane dashboard of information.’
