Counting – Teach Your Staff To Count For Better Business Results

Introduction

Big businesses count. They do lots of counting of lots of things. Managers in big business know it’s important to have accurate information about their business and marketplace. There’s no reason why small-medium business shouldn’t count and enjoy the same benefits.

Why Bother?

Counting reveals what really happens in your business. As a business manager, you’re under constant pressure to respond and adapt to business pressures. If you lack accurate information you rely on the traditional beliefs about what makes your business tick. That information changes. If yours isn’t accurate, your decision making will suffer. And if you don’t count you’ll have trouble setting and meeting performance standards.

What Should You Count?

Whatever affects your business should be counted. The real benefit comes when you join counts from various areas and compare counts from the same area over time. You have to decide what information is most crucial to your decision making.

The counting itself isn’t difficult. The information is in your records. And computers make it relatively easy to find. There are also a number of computer packages which you could buy and use.

Joining The Counts

For example, you keep sales figures. But do you know the figures by product or service? Do you know which customer buys which product, how often and how many. You may know your production costs and your overheads. Can you match them with sales and customers?

You’ll know generally about profitability. But which products or services are most profitable? Are your “best” customers buying the most profitable products? Are the most profitable products your best sellers?

How do new customers find out about you? Are some categories of customers better long term supporters than others? What does it cost to gain a new customer? Do “old” customers buy more than “new”?

A Case Study: How Counting Helps

A service company I know keeps detailed records of customer activity. They created a Priority Client scheme for their best clients. As part of the scheme they introduced a newsletter for their clients. Initially it was published each 4 months. It was well received so they published it every 3 months.

They noticed that every time it was published, sales to these clients improved. This is a simple exercise of counting client activity and spending has paid off in a big way. And it’s improved performance against standards too.

Involve Your Staff

You can decide what to count. Your staff can accumulate the information and present it to you. In a 21^st Century business computers make this relatively simple. You don’t know how much your staff already know but don’t regard as important. Ensure your people realize the value of counting and how valuable their contribution can be.

Conclusion

It’s straightforward. If you don’t count, you won’t know. If you don’t know, you’ll make poor business decisions. Today, computers make it easy. This is one area where your small business can easily match it with big business. Counting leads to more precise performance standards.

What To Do Now

Identify those areas you want to know more about. Specify what it is you want to know. Organize someone to count for you. Review the results of the count. Act on these results.