Roughly half of small businesses have failed to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure company growth, and 50% say their companies aren't living up to to their potential because KPIs are unknown.
Those rather depressing are based on a 250 person survey of small enterprises in the United Kingdom. The survey, conducted by Geckoboard, revealed other areas of concern.
For instance:
- Of the small businesses that have established KPIs, most companies review the performance metrics on a monthly basis.
- And roughly 33 percent of the KPI trackers never reassess the KPIs.
- On the flip side, 74 percent of businesses that monitor KPIs in real time hit their growth targets in 2015.
Fortunately, U.S.-based small businesses are far savvier about KPIs. They've mastered dashboards that track financial metrics, customer retention, employee morale and plenty more. Or not...
The potential good news to keep in mind: I suspect IT service providers that leverage PSA (professional services automation) and RMM (remote monitoring and management) software are pretty savvy about their KPIs -- particularly these 10 KPIs that are popular with VARs and MSPs.
Moreover, platform extensions and business intelligence systems like BrightGauge, MSPCFO and others help to put more context around the KPIs. And industry educators like HTG Peer Groups, Service Leadership and TruMethods offer additional business performance guidance.
But beware the business owner who can't describe specific performance goals -- and current metrics that pave the way toward those goals.
