One of my favorite films, when I was growing up, was The Wizard of Oz. Of course, most of you are familiar with Dorothy and Toto following the yellow brick road to meet with the mighty wizard so that she could return home. But for all of the hype that surrounded this great sorcerer, it turns out that he was simply a clever man behind a curtain. With that in mind, I want to give you all a peek at what takes place behind the curtain in our business, how the sausage is made, so to speak. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to really look at what makes our businesses work. Today, I want to share our team’s journey to discover KPIs.
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Every January, we close the office for a few days to get away and conduct our strategic planning session. This consists of 3-4 days in an offsite location where we are free from the distractions that can occur in the workplace. Over the course of this retreat, each team member contributes to the process and is tasked with homework on their individual areas of responsibility.
This year, my assignment was to identify, strengthen, and condense our company’s KPIs. In a moment of arrogance, I boldly proclaimed that I would have this done in 45 days. I mean, I’m the guy who will charge hell with a water pistol. Discovering our KPIs would be no problem. Well, more than 20 books, countless websites, whitepapers, and podcasts later, I had to admit that I had bitten off more than I could chew in that timeframe.
RELATED READING: KPIs: What are They and Why Do They Matter to Business Owners?
I want to share this experience with you because understanding what helped me in my journey of discovering KPIs in our business may be of great value to you. So, without further ado, let’s explore some of the resources that I found helpful.
These are some of the books I read while discovering the KPIs for team. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it is made up of the books that helped me the most. As I go through this list, I’ll share a little bit about why I read them and what I gleaned from their pages.
My reason for entering into all of this research was to nail down the 3 to 4 critical items that I need to check (on a macro level) to know exactly how our business is performing. Basically, if I’m off hunting in the mountains for a month, I want to be able to look at these items and tell what’s going on with our team. Over the past month, I’ve looked at these items in the context of the 8 key areas (Planning/Leadership, Sales/Marketing, People/Operations, Finance/Legal).
Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of the particulars of our team. I’m doing this so that you can see the authenticity in what I teach. But, I’m also doing this so that you can see some of the frameworks or processes that go into this so that you can work within your company. If you’re reading this and thinking, “Justin, I don’t have the time for this. There’s no way I can read 20-30 books in a month to discover the KPIs in my business,” I get it.
I understand that your time is limited and precious. But that’s where the value of hiring a consultant really comes into play. You bring them in to apply their experience to help you avoid making common mistakes or even expedite the process, enabling you to focus on growing your business.
Friends, this has been such an eye-opening experience for me. There’s still some work to be done, but I am grateful to share this process with you, giving you a glimpse into my life as a business owner. Hopefully, through my experience, you can learn how to quickly and efficiently discover, implement, and measure your own KPIs. Or, perhaps, be able to decide that you really don’t have the time or patience to do it all on your own.
Life is hard, but life is good. I’ve certainly learned that discovering KPIs can be frustrating. However, it doesn’t need to be. With a great consultant and a little research, you can make discovering your KPIs, at least, financially simple. Let’s go out and make it a great day!
Don’t have the time to research and solidify the KPIs in your business? Save yourself a ton of time, energy, and money by hiring an experienced business consultant. Reach out to our team. We’d be happy to help!