In business - and in your personal life for that matter - you must know your numbers, bottom-line. However, don't let numbers be scary or repel you. Even though the mind set that many of us grew up with was 'numbers are no fun', 'numbers are hard', 'dry', 'not creative'... Whatever the misconception you were given about numbers when you were young, quite the opposite is true. Numbers tell a story, numbers help you forecast (your own personal crystal ball), numbers are creative, and when you get right down to it, numbers make up the universe - think music, chemistry, cooking, dance, architecture, and so on.
And the wonderful thing about business maths, which is all that is needed in general commerce, is that it's really simple, there's no rocket science here. All you need to do is basic adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, with fractions, decimals, and percentages thrown in for good measure.
Another simple truth about numbers; if you don't watch them - testing, measuring, and tracking what they're telling you - then numbers won't play a role in helping you succeed.
Embrace numbers. Ignore them at your peril.
Use the following tools to help you with keeping track:
• ActionCOACH 5 Ways:
1) number of leads generated (marketing)
2) conversion rate (leads to sales)
3) number of transactions for each buyer
4) amount of average rand sale for each buyer
5) profit margins on your revenue
• balance sheet
• break even
• cash flow with cash-gap breakdown
• income statement (P&L)
• marketing campaigns (always testing & measuring)
Any ActionCOACH coach, around the globe, will have stories about clients who, over the years, spent literally thousands of dollars on ad campaigns, just because that's what they'd always done, when those campaigns were actually costing them money in the end. Or, those clients who were focusing their sales efforts on inventory items with the lowest possible profit margins, while their higher profit-margin items sat languishing on the shelf. And there are those business owners who never increased their prices, as business expenses continually crept up year after year, so they ended up taking less money home at the end of their efforts each year.
There are so many ways money can slip through business owners' hands. If you just systemise and embrace your numbers, that won't happen. Start tracking and having fun with your numbers today.
News supplied by ActionCOACH Business Coaching.