The importance of managing and working in your job (and not exclusively in your work) for business growth was highlighted in a previous article. Let us remember, for optimal business management it is not enough to have only a good product or service, but the whole business model should be seen from a broader perspective. By analyzing the results achieved, you get an insight into the movement of your business, and with it you can make smarter business decisions. This time we will focus on exactly how it can look in practice and offer you a simple tool that you can apply immediately to your business!

3 steps to growth: Records, Insight and Action

To manage your business well, you need insight – clear numerical indicators that reflect your business achievement so far. With such insight, you can make decisions that have a strong foothold in the data, which significantly increases their quality, and therefore directly affects the rapid growth of your business!

Step 1: Records

While it may sound laborious and boring, quality and comprehensive records are the foundation of the whole story. Structured registration and storage of data is necessary to build precise insight in the form of a report. Otherwise, there is a so-called 'garbage inside, garbage out' effect – you can't build a quality wall of low-quality bricks. We will show you how a few simple records_(services, clients and traffic)_from only a few fields can instantly bring you a wide insight into your business result.

Step 2: Insight

Reports and visuals as a blood count of your business will open your eyes. You will become aware of how successful you really are and you will be able to accurately detect sore spots but also discover hidden opportunities. After all, it is you who know your business and industry best, and with a powerful tool for in-depth insight into the form of reports, you are ready to take full control!

Step 3: Action

While the need for reports and business insights for quality management is unquestionable, using them to make business decisions is essential. Decisions to change price lists, working hours, or perhaps launch a specific marketing campaign are just some examples of decisions made based on insight and awareness created. In the example that follows, we will also list in addition to each report possible decisions that the business owner could consider by analyzing his figures.

Model in action - a practical example

Now let's look at what it would look like in practice on a simple (fictitious) example. We will show how with only 3 basics of records you can get a rich set of reports for in-depth insight.

In our example we are talking about a self-employed physiotherapist who opened his own company a few years ago, and sees the value in high quality of service and personalized approach to the client. This business strategy means that marketing will rely on so-called customer engagement and oral tradition (according to this approach, a set of reports is formed, focused on clients).

File

Surely you already have the first record – it is a list of your services (or products) with associated prices, that is, your price list. For simplicity, we will say that the offer contains 4 basic services: physical therapy (200 kn), manual techniques (300 kn), medical massage (250 kn) and individual training (100 kn).

The following log is a client list. Although this record can be expanded by adding attributes to each client (e.g. gender, age group, ...), let's dwell only on identification – first and last name.

The last record we need for this simple example is traffic records, that is, services provided. And this record is very simple, we only need 3 fields: date, service and client.

That's it! An already simple set of only 3 records can bring you a lot.

Reports, insight and action

Now let's also look at several reports that you can receive based solely on the records described above. With good process establishment, reporting can also be automated.

1) Report on turnover and number of services sold (per month).

This report tracks the total turnover by month (in cash and number of services sold) for the last 13 months. Turnover (or sales revenue) is a head indicator of a business's performance, so focusing on its growth is very important.

Insight and action: the decline in 2021-07 is due to seasonality (vacations), but still there is an improvement from last year, the same is expected for August. Given the level of traffic last September and the end of the holiday season, a marketing mini-campaign could be launched for a faster return to full operation at the beginning of September.

2) Number of customers served (existing/new)

If your business model or industry is such that retaining clients (i.e. their repeated arrival) is important to you, the ratio of new and existing clients is quite indicative. The interpretation of this indicator also depends on the maturity of the company – it is not the same if you started work a few months or several years ago.

Insight and action: there is a decrease in the relative number of new clients in the last 4 months. Since the business is in a growth phase, the arrival of new clients is extremely important, so the targeted promotional action in this direction is a good move to consider.

3) TOP5 clients (in the last 3 months / ever)

We continue to see our customers, where for the best possible relationship it is good to know who your most loyal customers are. To reinforce such connections, it is worth considering some form of convenience or loyalty program.

Note: although it was done by a fictitious example, it was not the fictitious names and surnames of clients that were used, but the IDs (e.g. Client 78)

Insight and action: for the most loyal clients introduce a convenient surprise (e.g. free service) or systematize the loyalty program in general.

4) Customer Cards
We continue with a personalized approach to the client since nowadays customer engagement is the main form of marketing. Based on the (minimum) set of records that we have in the example, one can obtain such an insight at the client level:

Insight and action: Before each arrival of an existing client, an overview of his card can contribute to a personalized approach. Of course, this review can be enriched by adding information to customer records (e.g. contact details) and to traffic records (e.g. a note for a particular service provided).

We've only gone through a few examples of reports that can be obtained from the minimum records we've described. Expanding records also significantly increases the number of possible insights that can be created. It is essential to determine the relevant insights that are indicative and subject to action (actionable).

If you want to see the process from the example in action, here is a demo video with step-by-step instructions, and you can request the Excel application itself and try it out on your business model!

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Automation of records and insights

Believe it or not, the first two steps of this process that will bring progress to any business can be fully automated! What's it all about? By filling in their term record (wherever it is at the moment, the Google Calendar, Excel table, classic "tequila" or something else) actually automatically have traffic records. If a service and customer are associated with each term, that's it, all data is collected! However, they are probably not well structured and/or digitized (with a tequila you will not get very far in this matter) and thus are actually unusable to produce reports.

In addition to its primary functionality*(online* ordering), the Zoyya system contains structured storage of services, clients and of course terms, which is the equivalent of traffic records. In addition, there are predefined reports within the system, thus making the insight step automated! For example, see how customer-level notes made it easier for Tanjito work life .

So, even in case you do not need online ordering as such, this convenience will instantly bring you closer to many times better management of your business.

Create a free Zoyya account and start online appointment records now!

It's your turn!

As far as step three is concerned, i.e. acting and taking action in accordance with the insights gained, your intuition and business strategy should be the main drivers of change and decision-making. Imagine this way of managing your business: every week or month, ready-made and purposeful reports on the results achieved await you as owners. Use them to monitor the success of previous decisions and make new ones, where with this continuous process your result increasesnoticeably from week to week .

Conclusion

For quality business management, it is necessary to make decisions and form a strategy in accordance with precise and comprehensive insight into the achieved results. Such insight can only be obtained by the same (detailed and comprehensive) storage of data, i.e. by records. That is why the first step for the introduction of reporting systems is the establishment of records. You can automate the same by switching from the current term record mode to the Zoyya system by opening a free account, or by forming personalized applications as we have been through in the example. See exactly how this was done in the demo video and download the excel application that you can immediately try on your data!

Do you want to establish a personalized system tailored specifically for your business? Do you think you could use some help in analyzing and defining further strategic steps? Here you can book a free introduction meeting and initial consultations.

Good luck!