Month: February 2022

KPI blog

Setting KPIs for your business: 6 tips

Posted on | by Jade Donno

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are metrics that tell you if what you’re doing is working or not. As you can imagine, this makes them incredibly important for productivity and business growth.

How do you know that you’re on the right track to achieving your goals if you don’t measure progress?

How do you know that you’re doing exactly what you should to get to the place that you want to be?

The short answer is, you don’t.

If you want your team to work more efficiently and if you want to actually reach the goals that you set out for your business, you need to start setting and monitoring the right KPIs. Here’s how.

1) Set KPIs for everyone

Regardless of the size of your business and team, you need to set KPIs for each team member. Metrics allow you to measure performance and improve it, so don’t be tempted to not set them at all.

2) Don’t set too many KPIs

This is a big mistake that many business owners make. Avoid this. Less is more when it comes to improving performance, as too many goals affect focus. Aim to have no more than 5 KPIs for each team member.

3) Choose KPIs that are relevant to the businesses overall goal

KPIs need to directly link to the demands of the individual’s role and what the business is trying to achieve, so look at your business plan. Where is the business going? What are the key figures that you need to know and measure?

4) Agree on these with each individual

Once you’ve chosen the KPIs for each individual, sit down with them and agree on them. Set your expectations but also explain how they will support the business by achieving these targets. The more you can show them how they contribute to the overall success of the business, the better.

5) Measure and monitor KPIs

It’s not enough just setting KPIs, you need to measure and review them. Setting and monitoring KPIs is an essential business development task, so schedule in time to review this data every month. When you do, you’ll see what tweaks you need to make to improve productivity and move the business forward.

6) Review and reset these every quarter

As your business grows and changes, your targets will be out of date. Make sure to review them with your team every 3 months so that you can update them and ensure they are still relevant. During this time, give your employees feedback, seek out their views on what is working or not working, tell them how the business is performing, and discuss what they can influence to move the business forward.

Start getting results by setting KPIs

Don’t just set arbitrary goals, set KPIs too. If you do, and you track them and monitor performance, you’ll soon see if you’re getting the results that you want. If you’re not, then the great thing about KPIs is that you can identify that something isn’t working a lot sooner. All it takes is another tweak here and an improvement there, and you’ll find what works best for you and your business.

quiz

The Self-Employment Quiz: Can You Make It Work?

Posted on | by Jade Donno

Self-employment can be a great option for people who want to spend more time with their family or want the freedom and independence that come with running their own business. But is it right for you?

To find out, take this quiz:

**Answer each question with a Yes or No

1) Are you confident in your skills and expertise?

2) Do you have skills and passion for the business you’re considering?

3) Do you enjoy working alone?

4) Do you have good time management skills? (E.g. can you juggle multiple tasks and responsibilities at the same time?)

5) Are you self-motivated and disciplined enough to work without someone telling you what to do? (E.g setting your own deadlines)

6) Are you confident in your ability to take on a variety of roles—marketing, business management, accounting, etc.?

7) Are you a quick learner and do you like to learn new skills?

8) Do you find yourself coming up with and pursuing new initiatives?

9) Can you handle making decisions on your own when things get tough?

10) When things go wrong, are you able to pick yourself up and problem-solve?

11) Do you have the knowledge and skills to make your own product or service?

12) Do you know how to promote yourself so that others will buy from you?

13) Would you be comfortable reaching out to a network of peers or contacts to establish meaningful and lasting relationships?

14) Are you able and willing to forego your paycheck in the early years, in order to earn income from offering your own products and services? (E.g. Can you live without an income until your business reaches breakeven?)

15) Are you willing and prepared to work long hours in the beginning?

16) Are people in your life aware of the effect a drastic change in your lifestyle, career path, or financial stability may have?

17) Can you live with high levels of uncertainty?

18) Are you resilient? (E.g mentally and emotionally)

19) Are you resourceful?

20) Do you regularly set and accomplish personal goals?

Give yourself a point for every Yes answer and give yourself a mark out of 20. If you scored 16-20, you have the best chance of success if you choose to become self-employed!

If you answered “no” or “maybe” to a lot of the questions, self-employment might not be the right path for you or you might have some work to do before it’s the right time.

By no means is this self-employment quiz the decider for whether you choose to run your own business or not. However, it is based on the qualities, skills, and traits you will need to become a successful entrepreneur!

If you want to go for it and become self-employed, look at where your ‘No’ answers are. If you know you’re not good at managing money, consider getting an accountant or bookkeeper for your small business as early as possible. If you’re not comfortable with networking or sales, take some online courses and start practising little and often.

Even if these are not qualities or skills you have a natural proclivity for, you can plan to cultivate them over time.

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How to attract the right clients (ones who value what you do)

Posted on | by Jade Donno

I heard this saying recently, “you get the clients you deserve.” At first, I wasn’t sure what it meant so I dug a little deeper, but my conclusion was and still is, that this is 100% true.

Think about it, if you’re accepting low-paying, nit-picky clients and you’re not setting their expectations for how you actually like to work, you’re going to keep getting these types of clients who you don’t even enjoy working for. Conversely, if you stick to your guns with your prices, you set client expectations, and you emanate confidence and passion for what you do, you’re going to weed out the energy-drainers and only attract the type of clients that you actually want.

Sounds perfect, right? It really is as simple as that. If you want to attract the right kinds of clients – the ones who actually value what you do and are willing to pay for it – here is how you do it.

Step 1: Create a growth plan and strategy

Choose your ‘one big focus’ for your business for the year ahead. Maybe it’s to win X amount of clients or to reach a financial goal. Whatever it is, write it down and work backwards to create actions that you need to take every month, week, and day, to reach this goal.

Step 2: do a full client portfolio analysis

Make a spreadsheet of all your clients and go through them all individually. Record what you do for them, how long it takes, your profit margin, whether they are easy/medium/hard to work with, if you like working with them, and whether you’d be happy to lose them.

Step 3: create your client personas

Now you have identified your best clients, create a client persona/s. This should outline their age, gender, occupation, education, family/marital status, goals, values, personal aspirations, fears, challenges, and pain points. The more detailed you can be with this, the clearer the picture will be of who you are targeting, what they want, and how you should communicate with them.

Step 4: tailor your marketing to your client personas

The mistake that many business owners make is being too generic with their marketing. They want to cast as wide a net as possible to “appeal to more people,” but what ends up happening is they make no impact at all. When you have your client personas, adapt your marketing message to target them. You only want to win these types of clients so address their specific pain points and position yourself as the solution or the guide that can help them achieve their goals.

Step 5: ditch your ‘D’ clients

Look back at your client portfolio analysis and identify your A-B-C-D clients. Typically, they are as follows:

  • Clients who make up 65% of your sales = A clients
  • Clients who make up 20% of your sales = B clients
  • Clients who make up 15% of your sales = C clients

D clients are those low-paying, nit-picking clients who you’re not really happy with and who don’t contribute a huge amount to your bottom line.

The last step in the process of attracting the right clients is to ditch these clients. Not only does this give you more time to go after the ones you actually want, but it makes room for them too so that you can provide them with the service they deserve.