When you make a decision on a course of action in your business, how do you know it’s the right direction?  Often, we need to make decisions with a limited amount of information.  So, truth be told, we usually don’t know it’s the right decision.  That’s part of being a business owner – making the tough decisions, and sometimes the wrong decisions.

Keeping our eye on the dashboard helps us know what’s going on in our business – what gets measured, gets accomplished.  Not sure what a dashboard is?  Read What’s On Your Dashboard?

A dashboard also helps us determine what to change in our business.

If you’ve ever tinkered with an old car, you make an adjustment here, take it for a test drive, make another adjustment there, another test drive, until you get it humming along.  If you’re not using a dashboard in your business, either you’re driving with a blindfold on or you’re assuming it’s running perfectly.

With a changing economy, changing competitive field, and changing technology, a business owner needs to continue navigating towards an improved plan.  While for some, just getting off dead center and making a decision is a true accomplishment, for you that just won’t cut it.

The successful entrepreneur makes even the tough decisions with a Plan B in their back pocket.  No longer is it enough just to make one decision.  You have to be prepared with a Plan B and be looking at the indicators on the dashboard to determine what can be changed to direct the course towards success.

So what do you measure on your dashboard?  Measure what you’re not sure will work.  If you’re implementing a new process or trying a new marketing strategy – measure it.  Does it create the results you want?

Not sure how to measure something?  You’re making a change because you have a hypothesis (yes, that’s a fancy word for ‘guess’) about the results it will produce.  So ask, ‘How will I know if it produces these desired results?’  Say you’re implementing a new process.  Your hypothesis is the new process will reduce down time.  So, measure it – what was down time before implementing the change and what is it now? 

Are you using a new marketing strategy?  You want to increase the number of inquiries coming into your funnel and you think this new strategy will do that.  So, how many incoming requests for information do you have?

Successful entrepreneurs know the benefits of and regularly consult their dashboards, not just as a tracking device, but to help them pinpoint where and when to change course.

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