Welcome to July! This month’s focus is all about financials and hitting financial targets. Why? Because we are halfway through the year and we need to do that gut check. How are you performing halfway through FY21?
If you know me either because we work together, because you are in my private Facebook group, or because you have been following these podcasts since 2020, then you know how much I push you to perform a realistic evaluation of your business performance. Why? Because financials are what make you an actual business!
So here’s the gut-check moment. How did you perform? If you’re not sure how to determine your targets ask yourself this: what were your targets for Q1 and Q2, such that added together you have targets for your business for ½ of the year?
Look at your financial targets, customer service KPIs, team member-specific KPIs, product growth, market penetration, average basket increase, repeat customer growth, etc. You can have, and probably do have, a ton of KPIs. What are you assessing?
When I work one on one with clients, I typically find that they are in one of 3 groups when it comes to targets:
- They don’t have any targets established
- They have some targets established to say they have some but they aren’t the business measures that really tell you anything about your business nor do they move you forward and help you grow.
- They have the right KPIs, the right targets, and they are actively and intentionally striving to move the business forward.
If you got into your car one morning, would you just start driving around aimlessly? Usually not. Usually, you get into the car because you have a destination. You are trying to get somewhere. Now, maybe you take a few wrong turns or there’s road construction that causes a reroute or a delay, but you still have a clear destination.
Your KPIs and your financial targets are your destinations for your business. You must have a destination.
So, do you have a destination or a target set? Are they the right ones? Last but not least, the challenge for today is: are you checking in on your performance regularly to ensure you are going to arrive at your destination?
You are your own GPS here. You have defined the target. You have created the path you are going to follow. But you have to check in to ensure you haven’t gotten off course.
So check-in! How are you doing? Are you going in the right direction? Do you need to recalculate your route?
You have ½ of the year left. Plenty of time to arrive at your overall destination. You simply must be intentional about it. Go schedule your review time, review the actual results, and intentionally drive your business forward.
Be Legendary!