Highly Chilled Habit #3: Be on top of the Numbers

numbers jumbled messy
work-life-balance business owner leading balanced life

The 7 Habits of Highly Chilled Small Business owners

This is the third article in a monthly series on small business owners I have met or worked with over the years who developed beautiful successful businesses.

Stories of successful real business owners

In 35 years of doing business and working with some of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met, I’ve learned a very important lesson: Success in small business starts by building great habits. I call these practices the “7 Highly Chilled Habits” and I find they’re best illustrated with the stories of real business owners who I happen to have had the pleasure of coaching.

The articles are based on my E-book, The 7 Habits of Highly Chilled Small Business Owners. All of my books and other resources are available for free here

Highly Chilled Habit #3:

Be On Top of the Numbers

In order to build a Highly Chilled business, you must keep your fingers on the pulse of all your business’ key health indicators, every week

BTW, You can read up on Chilled habit #1 here.

And Chilled habit #2, here

Be Nerdy like Narinder

The most focused business owner I’ve ever met is Narinder. I could tell a story about Narinder to illustrate almost all of the 7 Habits of Highly Chilled business owners, but this one about numbers is probably the most important.

More than 15 years ago, Narinder started his first small supermarket business in Sydney. This is his website. Over time, the business has grown enormously, and his stores are starting to pop up across the inner city.

Each of Narinder’s stores is profitable, his staff love working there and when he opens a new store, customers bring flowers to welcome him to the neighbourhood. As I said, there are many things Narinder does well, but the habit he’s developed to an art form is that of being on top of the numbers religiously, every day and every week.

Investigate the Numbers

Narinder was awakened to the power of numbers early on. He and I concluded that his first store was not performing to its full potential and we wondered what was wrong, so we decided to investigate. We started by measuring which products and categories sold well and which didn’t. We also analysed which sections of the store realised most of the sales he made. Narinder divided the store into 12 different sections and (with the help of his staff and some simple checklists) set about getting deeper insight into the shopping behaviours of his customers. A month later we had the stats.

It was immediately obvious that 2 sections of the store were visited much less than any of the others. The numbers made it very clear that people simply didn’t walk through those areas. We decided that the store needed to be re-organised and reconfigured. The 2 struggling sections needed lower shelving, more lighting and a different mix of product categories. Narinder pulled out all stops and within a week, the store had a completely different look and feel. After just a month, we were looking at a 9% increase in turnover. 6 months later, sales had grown by 25% with an improved gross margin.

Become a Devotee at the Church of Business Numbers

These days, Narinder measures everything on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. He has developed the habit of having his teeth in the numbers – and he’s never letting go.

Remember, if you want to become a Highly Chilled business owner, you must learn to love the numbers and regularly measure the ones that matter most to your business.

Your Homework (The Chilled Kind)

Here’s a short exercise you could carry out to start the process of making this habit your own.

Ask yourself: What would be the 15 (or so) key indicators of the health of your business?

Next, ask yourself: How could you have each of those indicators expressed as a number on a scale?

Practice Highly Chilled habit #3: Instruct someone else in your business to get you those 15 numbers every week and every month for you a in a single report.

Are you a small business owner in need of a chill pill? Explore Highly Chilled habit #4: Be Thrifty (with your time).

More on this topic:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *