KPI Mastery: Transforming Numbers into Narrative for Your Business

Every good story needs a side salad…..

This week’s blog is all about the story of KPIs. Do you have one of those friends who tries to tell a story, but makes 6 side salad stories instead of focusing on the main course….then you have to decode to follow the main story. So, you just sit there and you’re like why are we friends and how did we even get here? 

Welcome to life with storytelling by me and a business without KPIs….

T*xes are hopefully done, and if you sell products, your quarterly Sales T*x payments have been made…now it’s time to once again reflect. Last week, we talked all about setting you up for better financial practices moving forward for this next year. This week we are back and updating your KPI trackers. 

It seems like most people are either math-brained or not….I’m a finance major and am currently taking a few entrepreneurial finance courses as part of my graduate degree, and I do love them. Feel free to judge me, I know! However, I’m going to share some tips and tricks for setting your goals for the next year, without being a “finance nerd.” 

Back in January, we talked about creating personal KPIs and their importance. If you missed the blog, here’s a TL;DR or refresher if you don’t know what the f*ck KPI means…  

TL;DR: The blog discusses the importance of applying business-like Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to personal growth and mental health. By shifting typical business metrics towards personal attributes like time management, self-value, energy levels, relationship boundaries, and passion alignment, we can effectively monitor and enhance our personal well-being, ensuring alignment with our deeper values and purposes.

In the blog, I discussed the basic KPIs of things like Revenue Growth, Revenue per Client, Profit Margin, Client Retention, and Customer Satisfaction. Then, those were turned into personal KPI goals that could be tracked and measured. 

Thinking back to last week, you hopefully made that little commitment for change. So, you’re putting that to work, and this week you’ll actually create the change with new or updated KPIs to help you stay on track. 

If you’re not really mathematically minded (maybe you’ve hired out your bookkeeping) here are some ways you can create KPIs without needing a finance degree… remember, these are trackable tools that you can measure that show the vital signs of your business. Think of it this way - if you have an Oura Ring this is like your Sleep Score, Readiness Level, Stress Levels, etc… or maybe you can look at it like (hopefully more than just a yearly check-up) but your Blood Pressure, “AHHHHHHHHHH” throat look, blood tests, etc. Just like your doctor would use those to adjust your medications, you’re using these to adjust your business processes. 

1. Start With What You Know: Begin by assessing areas of your business that are easily observable. How many new clients did you gain this quarter? What was your average sale per customer? These questions don't require complex calculations—just simple observations.

2. Use Tools and Software: Leverage technology to handle the numbers. Many business management software tools can automatically track these metrics and present them in an easy-to-understand format through dashboards and reports. That means you don’t need to go build an Excel spreadsheet - WHEW! 

3. Focus on Changes and Trends: Instead of getting bogged down by the numbers, focus on what they tell you about trends. Is customer satisfaction up from last quarter? By how much? This approach keeps you focused on the 'story' of your data.

4. Keep It Relevant: Only track what's truly important. Not every metric matters equally, so focus on KPIs that directly relate to your goals and can inform your decision-making process.

Think about it this way too: try to track what brings in the revenue (your offerings & services) and track things that take away from them - maybe payroll is your next biggest expense, you might track how much of your revenue is going directly to your payroll expenses. 

For instance, if you offer a service for customers, your KPIs could be things like:

• Client Acquisition Costs - whether it’s through advertising, referrals, etc. Tracking all the expenses involved in getting new clients and monitoring if you’re spending too much or maybe not enough

• Revenue per Client - This should probably have been number one on this list, because without clients you don’t have revenue, and without revenue, you have a hobby….

• Other easy ideas might include: Client Retention Rate, Project Completion Rate, & Customer Satisfaction Score

…those are great KPIs and all, but let’s dive deeper.

For my “solopreneurs” - Here are some extra areas you may not have considered and may be crucial to the success of your business:

• Billable vs Non-Billable Hours: Measuring how much time you are actually spending on the revenue-generating portion of your business vs admin things….ORRRRRRRRRR maybe you’re working a sh*t ton on things for clients that you actually aren’t billing them for (MIC DROP.) 

• Time to Payment - If you’re in a single-income household and you work for people who are a lil’ slow at paying you, but you aren’t quite ready for an automated payment system. This is a great way to track how long it takes to send an invoice and get payment back - if it’s too long and you’re struggling to pay rent this might be a great time to upgrade to some sort of automated payment system…..

• Lead Conversion Rate - if you talk to a lot of people about your biz but there’s not a lot of follow-through, you could need a new way to optimize your marketing or sales strategy. This is a great way to track how your leads-to-clients system is working for you. 

• Overdue Project Percentage / Project Completion Rate - depending your personality and who you are as a person, one of these would be great to track to see where you could potentially start to automate certain aspects of your business or where you might need some help whether with time management or even more personnel.  

For my entrepreneurs overseeing employees or contractors - Here are some extra areas you may not have considered that may be crucial to the success of your business:

• Productivity Metrics - Are employees or Contractors using their time and YOUR time efficiently? This might be tasks completed or whatever agreed-upon item you’ve discussed. A great way to start this is by asking yourself, “How long does it take for that employee/contractor to give you that *THING* that they said they would?”

• Quality of Work: Employee or Contractor error and efficiency rates. How many times are you redoing something or keeping a task because you didn’t trust to move it off OR how many times are they absolutely crushing it and you can give them MORE so you can do MORE!

• Cost Efficiency - this is a great follow-up to the one above. By comparing the cost of your employee or contractor to whatever service they are doing for your business by the revenue it brings in (ex: Yoga Teacher and the number of clients in their class OR Social Media Agency and the leads receiving - Note within note: this could also be a great way to gauge if you HATE posting on social media if the cost of a Social Media Agency is worth the cost of you being able to free up your brain to work on other things.) 

If you’re not setting goals in life, you might not be setting them in your business….and vice versa. A study by the Harvard Business Review highlights the significance of KPIs in small businesses, noting that companies that tracked goals through well-defined KPIs outperformed those that didn't. Companies with strong goal-setting cultures coupled with clear KPIs saw more money and had more efficient help! 

But like….if you’re tracking goals in real life, you didn’t need Harvard to tell you that it helps. What even is “Harvard?” Jk Jk 

It’s time to take a Reality Inventory

Create your 5 KPIs that you should track and create at least TWO KPIs that you can also track to help with your mindfulness and mental health. 

These mindfulness KPIs might look like those from the blog last time, or simplify them down further into the basics so you can track your habits:

• AVG time Journaling/meditating/working out

• Mood Tracking 

• Stress Level Rating

• Sleep Quality 

Bonus: You can take your findings from your Reality Inventory and use THIS SCORECARD to help you keep track. Having a place to keep your KPIs all in one place is an efficient and quick way to do an overall health check of you and your business. NOTE: There are no formulas, just put your numbers down, add the color, and BAM you can see your vital signs.

If you're currently not tracking anything, this reality inventory might suck but it will be totally worth it. I’ve been there before I know. When I worked with a boutique fitness strategy consultant, she made me do this and she made me do the entire previous year plus the current months. It took FOREVER, but what it really did was show me where in the business there were serious wholes that I had overlooked. 

Tracking and seeing the data really showed me where I can exert more effort, ask for more help, or pull back where needed. Working on those KPIs also really inspired me for the “Truth” section in my book, The Possibility Project. Having that section where you can match your task with how you feel gives you the data to make a new choice, which is exactly what the scorecard can do for you and your business.

Numbers girl or not, starting small and putting in the work is the best way to stay consistent. Whether its increasing your revenue, mastering your time management, or focusing on your mental well-being, these KPIs are your guide to help you define success in this entrepreneurial world. Remember, what gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets mastered. 

Don’t forget, you are courageous enough to face the challenges of entrepreneurship, capable of mastering even the most difficult and daunting KPIs, and strong enough to push through every setback with possibility.