CM2 Software - Blog #Goal Setting

Why KPIs are Important to Your Business

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 16:06:09 -0400

With the boom of the technological revolution the advancements in business have been astonishing. We have gone from a trade and barter system, to shopping in our pajamas from the comfort of our homes! Communication has become easier and more widespread across the globe. Even advertising has changed from newspapers, to radio, to television and billboards, and now it is in the palm of our hands on social media. Emails are sent out automatically, customers provide instant feedback with reviews, and social media allows for a direct connection with consumers wherever they are. Our forefathers couldn’t even imagine the fast paced and connected world of commerce that we live in today.

Technology offers many amazing innovations, including the ability to track and evaluate performance information. Data is king, and businesses that track relevant data and use it to make good decisions are the ones who are successful. Businesses should be taking advantage of all of the available data to create key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the success or failure of business initiatives. These metrics provide valuable feedback to allow businesses to compare and contrast current results with the past, ultimately giving them a better view of the future.

KPIs work best when they are developed based on a company goal or initiative. They use quantitative analysis to understand where the business currently stands, and how a change has impacted that business over a period of time. For example, a business might have 10 sales managers generating $100k in sales revenue each month. With a goal of increasing revenue by 50% the company adds 5 new sales managers. The business knows that prospective clients are out there, but their sales managers cannot reach all of them because the workload is too heavy. Mathematically one would assume that by adding an additional 5 staff members, the revenue would follow and go up by 50%. However, this is not always the case, and the business will need to determine why the revenue is not coming in at the expected rate.

KPIs give that business an opportunity to identify where the shortage in revenue is coming from despite the increase in staff. The business can develop software to track how many leads are generated, how quickly they are followed up on, which managers are turning leads into sales, how much lead time is needed, what sales approach customers are more receptive to, and many other factors that could have an impact on sales growth. By identifying the results of each action, the business is able to more accurately pinpoint roadblocks and develop a plan to course correct. It is in this course correction that businesses succeed. KPIs provide usable data, but it is up to the business to take that data and use it to make decisions that will make an impact.

As business owners, managers, or CEOs it is important to identify the most important data that needs to be tracked. Sometimes it is as simple as comparing sales growth before and after a marketing campaign, other times it requires out of the box thinking. With the abundance of information available on the internet, businesses are no longer limited by the data generated within their organization. There are thousands of websites that gather tons of data for almost every industry. They can tell you what types of consumers are purchasing products similar to yours, how they are using those products, and the advertising that drove their purchases. Web sites can tell a business how many of one product was sold, who it was sold to, how much it was sold for, and how long it took to sell.

The information is out there and available to anyone who is willing to look for it. Getting that data is the first step in creating a KPI, the second is incorporating that data into software solutions that give that information relevance and value. Solutions can analyze data, compare it with other information, and in some cases isolate data that is specifically relevant to your business. The key to the success of data and KPIs is the relevance it brings to an individual business. If the data can be used as a tool to measure success it has unlimited value as the business can make the right decisions and focus on growth.

How will you use KPIs to take your business to the next level?

Task Managers keep you Organized

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 14:17:31 -0400

As business owners it is easy to become overwhelmed by all of the tasks that need to be completed every day. Remembering to follow up with current clients, potential clients, and employees can become overwhelming, along with all of the day to day operations. Small things start to slip through the cracks where they can easily be forgotten or overlooked. It’s a lot of pressure to keep all of the wheels turning and not missing a beat. In other words, being a business owner is exhausting.

As the work keeps piling up, it becomes more and more stressful and overwhelming to keep juggling all of the business’s operations. Not to mention, the pressures and responsibilities at home. Spending time with family and friends, enjoying hobbies, taking care of ourselves, and taking care of our homes are all important facets of life that should not be overshadowed by business. However, too often our personal lives get put on the back burner in favor of squeezing in a few more hours at the office. But how productive are those hours?

An essential component of running a small business is finding a method of remaining organized and keeping track of all of those tasks. When your business is small you can rely on programs like outlook calendars to keep track of your appointments, excel spreadsheets to keep track of expenses, and Hootsuite to monitor social media. But what are you using to keep track of all of the tasks that need to be completed?

Many times, developing a good system to keep track of all of the little tasks is overlooked. It doesn’t seem important when there are only one or two tasks in a day, but as you grow and begin to serve more customers the number of tasks that need to be completed each day, week, and month continues to grow along side it. Further, you might begin to outsource some of those tasks to employees and business partners as you continue to grow.

So how do you ensure that all the tasks are being completed without turning into the dreaded micromanager? Project Management task trackers. We highly recommend looking into this type of software that can offer your company an easy method of tracking the progress of a project without the added cost of a full time project manager. Further, you will save yourself from becoming the boss who only ever asks “Are you done yet?” Give access to your employees and empower them to complete tasks on their own and to update the tracker as necessary. Now you can check in on the application and know exactly where your team stands.

A good project task manager will give you the ability to assign tasks to individuals, give them timelines for completion, and have tasks reoccur every day, week, or month. The more automation you build into the platform the better off you will be in the long run. Automation works to eliminate the physical tasks that you have to complete over and over. Making you more efficient and giving your team a more consistent work environment. Do some research, see what task managers can do for your business.

Talk to an expert about Task Manager Software

Demand Custom Software

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 15:56:51 -0400

I recently read an article that argues that you should purchase a software solution that gives you most (not all) of what you need and then use add-on software programs to get the rest of the features that your business specifically needs. In other words, you should purchase software A because it fulfills 80% of what you need, and then return to the software hunt for software B, C, D, and E which give you the rest of the features that you really need (and a bunch of features that you don’t).

The article compares this type of purchase with buying a car. Stating that a car has one basic function (getting you from point A to point B) and then you can add additional features that you might want (air conditioning, seatbelts, rear-view camera, etc.). Their argument is that you will be purchasing the car for its nuts and bolts because it fulfills that basic need and that alone is a sufficient enough reason. However, now that you have the car you can add air conditioning, rear-view camera, and all of the other features separately to customize the car to your specifications.

As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think that this is such a preposterous (and outdated) way of looking at software. Why would I buy something that only does part of what I want? Could you imagine buying a car that did not have seatbelts and having to buy them separately? No? Me either. Although seatbelts are not the main feature of a car, they are an important safety feature.

However, a feature like air conditioning is only considered essential for some people and unnecessary for others. For example, someone living in Alaska might not need AC in their car, but for me, living in Florida I would die in the heat without it. However, that same person in Alaska would want heated seats, which I would consider unnecessary. (Although they came standard in the last car I purchased). Why would we be purchasing the same car when it doesn’t fully fit the needs of either of us.

Now I hear you saying, “who cares about extra features, just don’t use them?” And I agree with you to a point. In the car scenario you are right. I never turn the heated seats on, and I never turn my AC off, not a huge inconvenience and definitely something I can live with. But software is a different thing. Especially when the number of unnecessary features becomes overwhelming, or they interfere with the features you really want to use. There is software where you can’t even use the feature you want without using the features you don’t, or you can’t easily access the features you want because of all the extra clutter. Further adding to this difficulty, is that you have to add additional software to the original solution. If each added software has five unnecessary features and you need five additional software, you now have twenty-five features that are not being used.

Taking this analogy further, have you ever bought a car with every feature that you wanted? In most cases the answer is no. There is always some compromise somewhere. Maybe it is not the right color, maybe it doesn’t have automatic headlights, or maybe it’s not as fuel efficient as you would like. Somewhere along the sales journey you have made a compromise on your purchase and got 90% or less of what you originally wanted.

I can’t help the car industry, but when it comes to technology, we as consumers and developers need to stop compromising and demand software that gives us everything we want. Stop settling for software that only does part of the job, or that has so many useless features that it becomes cumbersome and impossible to use. In the long run you are creating more of a headache and nuisance for yourself and your employees.

Instead, we need to demand all of what we want by utilizing custom software solutions. Businesses need software that is going to separate them from the competition by engaging their customers, empowering their employees, and most of all making their lives easier and more productive. The only way to fully achieve this is through software that is built specifically for that business. Software that is straightforward and efficient.

This includes small and medium size businesses who have limited resources to begin with. Imagine spending a hefty amount on software thinking that it will make your small business more efficient and prosperous, then you find out that it doesn’t do everything that you need it to. And the only remedy is to spend more of your hard earned money on additional software that will supplement the one you have already purchased. At what point do you compromise and settle for software that is incomplete? When do you step up and demand software that is built for your business needs?

Technology trends, including the increasing availability of low-code software, APIs and Web Services have given businesses of all sizes the ability to re-evaluate their software solutions and to fight for software that does 100% of what they need 100% of the time. This is the new trend, we as business owners need to focus on. We need to stop settling and fight for what we need.

If you are struggling to find software that gives you what you really want, then you need to reach out to a software consultant and start a discussion about your needs. Software developers live for the challenge of developing software that truly solves a customer’s problem. Customized software is the future and businesses need to grab a hold of these solutions and revolutionize the way we all do business. Reach for something more by partnering with experts that can deliver the software that you really need.

Connect with a Consultant

Small Business, What Next?

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 15:00:00 -0400

What Next?

As a small business owner, you have overcome the biggest hurdles, you have carved out a unique niche in the market and raised enough capital to survive those beginning years. Pat yourself on the back because you deserve it. Many small businesses fail within the first five years of entering the marketplace, and you have survived. This is a great achievement and one that deserves to be celebrated.

As your business continues on its journey of success, it is important to think about what comes next. Even though you are established, and your clients are satisfied with your offerings, you need to look to the future to determine where your business can go and how you are going to get there. Having future plans is the key to success, as you must continue to grow and find new offerings to keep your customers coming back and to identify and interact with new customers.

So, what next?

There is no shortage of answers to this question, and the right path will be different for each unique business. However, technology has to be one of the avenues that every small business pursues. The possibilities of technology are only limited by our imaginations and our goals. For this reason, goal research should be the next step.

Set Goals

Having one year, five year, and ten year goals can give you and your team the motivation they need to keep heading in the same direction. Goals keep the team on the same page and allow for celebration when the goals are achieved. Team unity and goal creation go hand in hand in this next business step. Identify targets that you know your team can reach and then work together to get there.

You should also identify some goals that may be a little harder to reach. Goals that appear too difficult or impossible, may be the best goals you ever set. Once you have identified that impossible goal, have your team brainstorm how to get there. Their ideas can be the foundation of your success, and their buy-in will help keep the goal in the fore-front of their mind.

Identify Solutions

Do your research. Google is a powerful tool, and one that can really help you to identify the possible solutions to reach your new business goals. Look into the varying options for solving your business challenges and growth opportunities as a company. Talk to experts, network with other professionals, and read customer reviews. There is so much information out there that can help your business grow.

Once you have a list of possible solutions, it is time to weigh the pros and cons, and do some real world research. Try out the different solutions and see how they will work for your business. Go back to your team for input about the solutions and re-evaluate your goals.

Does the solution bring you closer to your goal? Does it give value to your employees? Is it beneficial to your customers? All of these aspects should be evaluated to determine if the solution works for your business.

Implement

Now that the right solution has been chosen for your business, it is time to implement! Put that solution to work and use metrics to gauge its success against your needs. The more data you can generate regarding the impact of the solution, the better off you will be. You will be able to fully understand its impact on the business, your customers, and your employees.

Start Over

Now that your goals have been reached, it is time to start all over. Identify new goals and challenges and work towards reaching those goals.

CM2

Here at CM2 Software we believe in the iterative life cycle of development. Just like goal setting, we identify a need, brainstorm solutions, develop a prototype, implement, and then start all over. This system allows us to provide software solutions that solve challenges while also leaving room to develop additional features that can easily be added to the deliverable.