Every business out there is constantly collecting data. Whether you are a new, one man operation with paper receipts or a well established company using every available metric in your fancy CRM, everything boils down to math.
There are 3 types of companies, grouped by their varying levels of numerical fastidiousness in business:
Type 1: Everything is on paper and in your brain. You have the data, but its not organized because you never thought to do so.
Type 2: Your data is nearly organized in your CRM or in a spreadsheet, but you have no idea how to “weaponize” it.
Type 3: Everything is right where it needs to be, and you are able to see the big SWOT picture. SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.
Type 1:
I was a Type 1 years ago. I had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with notebooks. As new customers called, I would sloppily write down their window clounts and info into a small notebook. I was in the restaurant business prior to becoming a window cleaner, so I wrote in “waiter shorthand”, which basically means scribbles that sometimes even I couldn’t decipher. There was no organization at all.
A friend of mine that came to help me part time pointed out that if I ever lost one of my little notepads I would be S.O.L., so I took a few hours to start entering my information into Word docs, then eventually GSheets.
After a year or two of this, I started building a nice little database of customers that I could actively market to whenever I needed the work. Seasonal contacts became much easier now that I could simply copy and paste information into Mailchimp or Slybroadcast. This is when we started seeing real growth.
If you are a Type 1, the process of upgrading to Type 2 isn’t as daunting as it sounds. Yeah, there’s a bit of data entry on the front end, but once you get the first big “dump” taken care of, things get much easier. There is plenty of free software available that will allow you to make spreadsheets and organize data. MS Office is the first that comes to mind, but if you’re anything like me, you don’t want to pay for it. Free options include OpenOffice, which runs almost exactly like MS Office but without the licensing fee. I used OpenOffice for many years before switching to GDocs and GSheets within Google Drive, then eventually GSuite, which is now Google One.
I prefer Google One tools now because it is cloud based. I can log in from my home computer / office computer or phone and have the same exact information in front of me. I also don’t have to worry about losing data because a hard drive died or a memory stick got lost.
If you’re just starting out, usable data is not going to come overnight. You need to collect the data long term to start to see trends and opportunities. One of my biggest regrets in business is that I didn’t keep up with the data during my first few years. A lot of good customers and leads fell through the cracks, and I’ll never be able to get back. Don’t make the same mistake that I did.
Type 2:
You’re one of the lucky ones! As a Type 2, all your stuff is organized and in your CRM / spreadsheets already.
So what do you do with this data? Weaponize it!
Start simple. Export a monthly breakdown of your vital information… revenue, customers booked, number of inbound leads, etc, and print it out. Then do the same with a weekly breakdown of the same metrics. If the reports from your CRM seem overwhelming or confusing, you can also export a .csv (spreadsheet) file, then copy and paste the data into a spreadsheet where you can easily compare the data.
Once you do this, the proper questions will start presenting themselves to you, and you can drill down the data even further. Why does the phone stop ringing in July every year, and how do we counter that with marketing? Why do we spend so much money in October as opposed to other months? When does our season actually begin and end? Why is pressure washing so hot in the spring and window cleaning so hot in the fall?
All of these questions will help you get a strong grasp on what is actually happening within your company. As time goes on, you’ll notice that everything is cyclical, even in a year like 2020 where it seemed like all the rules were thrown out the window. Eventually, you will be able to predict the ebb and flow of your business down to the week, and be able to adjust your operations accordingly.
Type 3:
Credit: 3D Window Cleaning
In a perfect world, I would like to consider myself a strong Type 3. The truth of the matter is that I will never be. Our company is probably a Type 2.5, and that is probably the healthiest place to be.
Tony Robbins preaches the concept of CANI – Constant and Neverending Improvement. No matter how tight you feel your operations are, there is always room for improvement and innovation. There are many industry gurus that will “teach” you how to become entirely hands-off in your business. Lets be honest though, the vast majority of us thrive on the business. The game is in our DNA. If you plan to remain active in your company, yet have systemized yourself out of a job, you are going to find yourself a very bored business owner.
At this point in the game, drilling data down becomes more of a sport than a chore. For example, every Wednesday I crunch the previous week’s data into a separate spreadsheet and manually do the math. This seems redundant when you already have the numbers in your CRM, but the act of breaking things down manually gives you a holistic comprehension of what is actually happening in your company that dashboards can’t.
Keeping a journal of happenings is extremely helpful as well. Having information such as when the first / last freeze was, issues with customers, marketing effectiveness etc. at your fingertips is an incredible help when trying to plan out your year and budget. For example, as I write this we are expecting a major blizzard to hit our area (NJ) tomorrow. With a few clicks, I can see that this also happened in 2013 and 2016, almost to the day. I can use this info to make informed decisions when it comes to scheduling work and letting customers know that inclement weather may play a role in whether or not we can do the work now, or postpone it until spring.
Ultimately, it is up to individual business owners to decide how far down the numerical rabbit hole they want to go. Some love the minutiae, some don’t feel it necessary to know every metric surrounding your company at all times. In either case, at least having the basic data, organized, is crucial to long term growth!
– Chris Cartwright