The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future

Monitoring Your Business
 
Regardless  of  your  growth  strategy,  you’ll  want  to  pay  attention  to  the
health  of  your  business.  The  best  way  to  do  this  is  with  a  two-pronged
strategy:
Step 1: Select one or two metrics and be aware of them at any given
time, focusing on sales, cash flow, or incoming leads.
Step  2:  Leave  everything  else  for  a  biweekly  or  monthly  review
where you delve into the overall business more carefully.
 
Some  members  of  our  group  were  much  more  diligent  about  tracking
metrics than others, with a number of people talking about being obsessive
over data and others saying they had “no idea” about what was happening
in the business. (My opinion on this approach: Personalities and skill sets
vary,  but  be  wary  of  delegating  all  financial  knowledge  to  someone  else.
Having no idea about money stuff is usually a bad sign.)
The metrics you want to track will vary with the kind of business. Here
are a few of the most common examples.
Sales per day: How much money is coming in?