How to Monitor Your Business

Starting a business is great, but the real work only starts there. Many businesses fail to properly evaluate their businesses and to keep monitoring it, which is a huge reason why around a third of businesses don't even make it to two years, half don't make it five years, and only 25% manage to reach 15 years of operation. Beyond just seeing that it's profitable, you also need to consistently monitor your business to make sure that the practices of your business align with your vision and that it is on track to meeting the goals your have for your business. 

But how can you do all this? 

1. Make a business plan. If you want to have a successful business, you have to have a good business plan with targets and a strategy. If you simply start a business without planning how to conduct it, chances are you will go into it without enough knowledge, which I think we can all agree doesn't sound like a good plan. Creating a plan can give you the time to prepare yourself and your business for the time ahead, and it can give you something to measure the progress of your business against. It is also vital to regularly update your plan as circumstances change. Particularly the analyses such as the SWOT analysis where you analyze your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

2. Hire and delegate to people you trust, and evaluate them well. It is understandable that you may not be able to do everything on your own all the time, and chances are you won't be the best at every single department of your business. A business, after all, is only as good as its people. A good Human Resources team can help you hire the best employees and ensure that they are doing well.

3. Audit your company.  Based on the income you generate, MIRA may require audited financials to be submitted yearly along with your tax documents. But even if you are not officially required to, audits are a good idea. The auditors evaluate your financials and your business to determine whether your accounts are being handled well, whether your records are properly maintained, and whether your business is healthy. This evaluation can help flag issues early on - for example poor inventory control, mismanagement of funds, or even fraudulent activities within your business. This allows you to mitigate the issues as soon as they are noticed. 



4. Regular two-way feedback. Make it very clear what you expect from your employees by creating SMART targets together and then evaluate employees based on those regularly. SMART targets are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. When employees clearly know what they are expected to do, and get regular feedback on their work, they are more likely to do well. 

While feedback is usually top-down (managers to employees), it is also a good idea to incorporate bottom-up (employee to manager) feedback into reviews. Two-way feedback is incredibly valuable as it encourages open communication and transparency.

5. See what the customer experience is like - you can personally use the products and make use of the services yourself as well to see whether you enjoy what you are getting. If you have a business that has different outlets that customers go to, you can employ secret shoppers who can review them based on certain criteria such as the customer service they provide, the products, the quality of goods, and the convenience. To go a step further, you can conduct random surveys to see how people feel about your business. When you know what people like and dislike, you can continuously improve and work to enhance the customer experience. People will also probably appreciate that you care about what they have to say and are therefore likely to think more favorably of your business going forward.