“Without tracking this information, you would be pretty lost and might believe that luck or the alignment of the stars were the only cause of your business success...”

Numbers have an important story to tell in your business. Tracking them, we can discover at a glance why certain trends happen—why your income is up (and how to strengthen it), why your new clients are down (and how to reverse the downward spiral).

When I first became an online coach for entrepreneurs, I was shocked to discover how few owners really track any numbers in their business!

I started my first business in 2006, and within a year I was able to sell it for enough to travel, volunteer and live a very unusual lifestyle for a 20-year-old.

As I was building that business, simple data analysis made it possible to figure out where I was going...and more importantly: how to get there.

This week on Fierce Feminine Finance I'm sharing with you the best strategy for tracking numbers in your business and analyzing them at the end of the year to set up your business for a highly profitable 2024.

With every episode of Fierce Feminine Finance, I like to empower you with a POWERFUL free resource that goes with the episode which you can implement right away to create some of the same results, if not better, in your business.

This week, since we are talking about how to evaluate the data you've tracked in your business for the last year, I put together a New Year Profit Plan so you know the best questions to ask yourself so you can come up with a great game plan for 2024.

After going through this freebie you will be able to identify what is working (and what isn't) in your business right now. So you can take things to the next level!

You can download it right away by clicking here or on the photo above 👆

With that said, here are the numbers you should be tracking in your business to help magnify your profits in 2024! 👊

The most common question I get asked as a money coach for business women is: What numbers should I be tracking in my business?

Some of these are obvious: you should track your total revenue (business income), number of clients, and the numbers related to your marketing and sales efforts, etc.

Others are industry-specific. An e-commerce store would track different numbers than a plumbing company.

In the words of Albert Einstein: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

If your goal is to have hard data upon which you can reliably make solid business decisions, then here are some tips on where to start:

In his book, Measure What Matters, American investor and venture capitalist John Doerr says it best:

"[Numbers] benchmark and monitor HOW we get to the objective. Effective [objectives] are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable."

The best numbers to track in your business are those that directly relate to your current objective. Therefore goal-setting must come first.

If you have an objective, for example, I want to increase revenue from $100k to $250k this year. Well, it becomes immediately obvious that the first number you will have to track is "business revenue".

What is less obvious are the smaller numbers that add up to this key result. In order to understand what other numbers, if tracked, would give you power and correct answers in an analysis of your data, you would have to know the ins and outs of how money flows through your business.

Create A Flow Chart

Flow charts have been used by entrepreneurs (and engineers) to visualize data flow since the early 1920s.

By drawing out the steps a customer must take to go from "oblivious you exist" to "buying your thingamobob", the wise business owner can define a key result or "number" (statistic) that can be tracked at each point along the way. And tracking every point along the way helps you easily identify at a glance where people are falling out of your system before they reach the destination.

For example, let's take a potential client:

• She sees your Tiktok video

• Clicks over to your profile

• Watches 2-3 other videos

• Clicks the link in your bio

• Downloads a freebie (in exchange for an email address)

• Opens the Welcome email and clicks on your call-to-action

• Purchases a micro offer ($17 offer)

We just outlined the flow of a customer from social media. If this is your current "sales funnel" or process...the numbers you would need to track consistently (on a weekly basis) are:

• Tiktok video views

• Profile views

• Link clicks

• Downloads

• Email open rate

• Email click-thru-rate

• Sales

By consistently tracking this data, you would be able to immediately identify what in your "funnel" (your marketing/sales process) is working...and what is not.

Without tracking this information, you would be pretty lost and might believe that luck or the alignment of the stars were the only cause of your business success.

Things To Consider When Prepping Your Business For 2024

1. Your Marketing Strategy

December is an opportunity to review what worked/did not work in your marketing strategy for 2023. (Be sure to compare last quarter as well as what happened over the holiday season last year in case your business is seasonal!)

• How many new clients did you acquire?

• How many returning clients?

• How many clients did you lose (churn rate)?

• What was your Client Acquisition Cost (CAC - how much did you have to spend on ads, postcard printing, etc., per new customer)?

• Social Media: Which posts were the most viewed? Most effective? Look at this through the lens of ATTRACTION posts (new followers), NURTURE posts (building authority/know/like/trust) and CONVERT (call to action, posts that drove traffic to a funnel, booking link, etc).

• Email Marketing: Which emails had the best open rate? Click-thru-rate?

• Offline/Events: How many attendees? What percentage bought? How much time was spent in terms of man-hours?

This end-of-year analysis gives you a chance to isolate successful actions and hone in on what exactly you're doing right.

2. Your Sales Strategy

Whether you are using an online sales funnel, or an offline sales process, to close your clients—now is the time to review the numbers and brush up on your sales skills before summer hits.

Review the results of the past year:

• Sales Calls: How many calls, contacts, closes?

• Funnels: How many unique views, opt-ins, sales?

What are the most common objections you hear to your offer? Now is a good time to refresh sales pages with new testimonials, design content that answers your most common questions, and find new and improved ways to position yourself as an authority and "best pick" by improving your sales image.

3. Your Financial Strategy

Print out a copy of your Profit & Loss Statement, freshen up your budget, and look over where you're spending your money.

• Are you efficiently utilizing your budget to earn more money?

• Calculate out what it costs you to deliver to a client...are your prices high enough to cover this plus pay yourself?

• Review each bill you are paying in your business and ask yourself, What income does this bill make possible? Look for alternative software, phone carriers, insurance companies, etc., to reduce expenses

• Meet with your CPA to review your projected taxable income and adjust spending accordingly

In Summary

I hope you found this article helpful!

Once you have reviewed what is working/what isn't in your business in 2023, you can meet with your team and identify goals for 2024 in a more effective way: to magnify your profits in 2024.

Want my help to analyze your business numbers, set an agenda for your annual team meeting, and identify the key changes your business needs to make to hit your 2024 goals?

Click here to schedule a 1-on-1 with me!

I always recommend to my clients that they complete these steps by Jan 15th to give themselves and their team the best chance to nail all their new year goals.

Happy Holidays!