Ep. 57 The Retail CEO Challenge: Tracking Business Performance
This post is part 3 of a 5-part series for the Retail CEO Challenge. Read the other parts here: part 1, part 2, part 4, part 5.
Tracking is one of the key pillars of a successful business. Without tracking, a business owner simply cannot know what works and what does not. My mission with this challenge is to empower you to become the CEO of your business. That’s why we MUST talk about tracking.
Ideally, someone is doing the actual tracking for you. Then you make decisions based on the data. So many shopkeepers, though, are one-person or two-person shops! We have to do it ourselves.
This is why I created the worksheets and the entire Retail CEO challenge. Following the steps in the challenge will save you time, minimize effort, and make this process as easy as possible!
For Savvy Shopkeeper, my virtual assistant does the tracking work for me. It’s so helpful and takes one thing off my plate. My time is better spent making the higher-level decisions based on the data she gives me. If this is what you’re striving for, awesome! You’re in the right place.
How Tracking Your Data Helps You Build a Better Business
1. Data helps you make better decisions. By tracking your data, you’re keeping an eye on the business all year long vs. just at the end of the year. If you wait, then it might be too late, or too much damage might have been done to address an issue in your business. Here’s a list of decisions that data can help a business owner make:
- Finding new customers
- Increasing customer retention
- Improving customer service
- Better managing marketing efforts
- Tracking social media interaction
- Improving financials
- Generating more revenue
2. Data helps you solve problems.
3. Data helps you understand performance. This is especially true if your systems and processes are working properly.
4. Data helps you serve your customer better. You’re much more in tune with your customers if you’re looking at your data.
5. Data helps you serve YOU better. You want a business that you LOVE. Tracking your data is one way you can build that.
Tracking your data could be viewed as “yet another task” to add to your list, but the weekly 15-30 minutes you dedicate to tracking and metrics in your business is way more valuable than the mindless scrolling you do on FB or IG every day.
So you see, the CEO Planner you’re building isn’t a one-shot deal. You’ll use this throughout the entire year.
Tracking usually makes me take a moment to pause, reflect and really think about why that one thing I’m tracking is performing well or poorly.
Tracking Worksheets Inside the Retail CEO Challenge
If you signed up for the challenge, you have access to:
Monthly Marketing Metrics
Keeping track of your marketing efforts is a good way to determine if you are growing, where you might be getting an ROI, or where you might need to improve.
On this worksheet, I left some of the category rows blank because each of our businesses is different. Maybe you have a VIP FB group and you want to track the growth in that group. Maybe you have a really active online shop and you want to track the conversion rate. Maybe you have an effective email marketing plan and list, and there’s tracking you want to do there too.
6-Month Sales Goals Tracker
Track your sales every month and calculate the difference from last year to the current year. This worksheet will help you track other important sales information too.
The important part here is that you’re completing this worksheet EVERY MONTH. It will help you identify whether sales went up or down each month and then figure out why.
Inventory Turn Worksheet
Use this worksheet to calculate how quickly your inventory turns by category. Shopkeepers tend to focus on revenue, but the speed at which your inventory turns is so telling.
This particular worksheet and the 15-page Year-End report have so many things that shopkeepers aren’t told or taught. That’s why this challenge has me so excited! You will learn SO much about your business when you sign up for this challenge and do the work—especially during the masterclass I’ll teach on February 8th.
Profit First Quarterly Report
Profit First is a cash management system that ensures that you pay yourself first. The system & accompanying book were created by Mike Michaolowicz and can be incredibly helpful for retailers (read more about how I implement Profit First in my businesses here).
If you’re a current Profit First user, this worksheet is meant to have you pause every quarter to determine if the percentages you’re using are actually working for you. Are you finding that you’re transferring from one account to another because one account is short? Then this is something that needs to be addressed.
Once money goes into each account, it should be enough to cover that part of your business. It took me a good 18-24 months to figure out the ideal percentages for my own business, so be patient with yourself! Just be sure to reevaluate each quarter.
Sign Up for the Retail CEO Challenge
If you want to sign up for the 2021 Retail CEO Challenge, it’s not too late! You can start this at any time throughout the year.
The challenge costs $197. If you’re in Master Shopkeepers, you already have access to all of this information. If you’re a Shopkeepers Lab member, there’s a special discount code listed in the Announcements in the Facebook Group.
The 2021 and 2022 Retail CEO Challenges are now closed. However, all of the worksheets, including the Business Health Checklist and Year-End Report are available in the Shopkeeper’s Lab. Members can find these in the CEO Time + Worksheets module. Click HERE to learn more.
Resources
Timestamps
- [03:18] How Tracking Your Data Helps You Build a Better Business
- [07:47] Tracking Worksheets Inside the Retail CEO Challenge
- [15:31] Sign Up for the Retail CEO Challenge
