Do you actually know how well you’re doing?

 

Do you actually know how well you’re doing? Or not?

 

It’s a big question and sooooooo important to look at!

 

In The Mentorship last week we had an AMAZING group session all about tracking certain things and looking at the things that we avoid as business owners so I wanted to hop in with a little food for thought for you. December is a GREAT opportunity to look at that.

 

Be honest with yourself, do you track any of your metrics?

 

Or are you winging it completely?

 

Do you track your audience growth, your financials, your potential leads list, anything?

 

This isn’t just important from the ‘businessy’ side of things.  Starting to do this can be a HUGE mindset shift.

 

It can also start to heal old patterns of avoidance too!

 

So have a think about what you avoid?

 

Do you avoid looking at how much you’re spending?

 

Do you avoid looking at how much you’re bringing in?

 

Do you avoid looking at how you’re investing?

 

To be clear I am absolutely in no way any kind of financial advisor.  So please don’t take anything I’m talking about as any kind of financial advice because it’s not.

 

But although I may not be any kind of financial expert, I have always tracked everything.  I love a spreadsheet and I believe that knowledge equals choice.

 

I worked in Media for 15 years in advertising and I brought multi millions of pounds and negotiated multi million pound deals…you can’t do that if you’re not tracking! 

 

So to some extent it was trained into me, but I am pretty meticulous because I don’t like to miss anything.

 

So at any one point if my boss came over i’d be able to tell him how much each one of my agencies was bringing in, per quarter, in comparison to last year (year on year) and I could forecast what was going to come in based on what was known as your ‘pipeline’ which essentially is a list of what was being talked about and negotiated at that time.

 

I also learned how to analyse data efficiently.  While one number might not look great, there’s often another that does, and they will always make sense. As an example during the recession looking at year on year revenue wasn’t a pretty picture.  BUT I could look at market share across our competitors and usually see that I was bringing in the lion’s share across the market.

 

Meaning, while yes, money in the bank year on year wasn’t good.  The fact that I’m bringing most of it into our title…meant I was doing a good job and I could sleep easy!

 

Hopefully that made some sort of sense ha! You don’t need to understand the finer details of that, it’s purely for illustration purposes ha! 

 

If I wasn’t tracking all that and able to analyse my own data it’s really easy to see how you could start to believe you weren’t doing a good job because the money coming in wasn’t looking great!

 

So that’s where tracking comes in. 

 

Tracking gives you knowledge.  It gives you control.  It gives you peace of mind.  It allows you to make better decisions in your business, based on data, not emotions!

 

As an example, one month might be your worst in terms of money going into your bank account.  But it could also be your best in terms of money brought into the business.

 

That could indicate perhaps your focus was on launching something, or something that would bring in money longer term but not right in that month.

 

But without knowing that you might just think you had a bit of a rubbish month!

 

If you don’t track what you’re spending each month you might wonder why there’s nothing in your bank account at the end.

 

If you track, you can see where you might want to pull back on spending a bit, or move something to next month.

 

It’s honestly game changing but you have to know what metrics are important for you to track.

 

I know this is a very practical minded episode but i’m hoping that you can see how important this is and SO many business owners aren’t doing it at all and are allowing themselves to feel rubbish about themselves and their businesses when they’re operating from their emotions or data they’ve assumed in their heads.

 

Tracking and data gives you REASONS for things. Oh, I don’t have much money left over this month because I spent X, Y and Z that was necessary, but actually I made more money this month than last month!

 

Plus the more you track the easier your end of year is ha!

 

Same with audience growth.  Same with planning out what you’re launching when, tracking leads into the business. Tracking how many people you’re talking to.

 

All of this gives you information that can release that sense of panic but also give you a bit of a map for where to put your focus.  

 

BUT it gives you an entirely different way of looking at things and therefore FEEL about things and we know feelings drive your behaviour AND it will help calm your nervous system because there’s more certainty…so hopefully you can see this will have us winning all round!  

 

So think about your business, or your life, what’s helpful for you to start tracking and taking a look at?  

 

If you’re avoiding it, what’s really causing you to avoid it?

 

What feeling are you trying to avoid?  

 

What’s better for your mindset and the way you feel?

 

Keeping in the dark but having that low level anxiety about money always in the background?  Or ripping off the plaster and having the truth in front of you so you can actually do something about it if it is as bad as you think…or have a lovely moment of being pleasantly surprised?

 

Allow yourself to see your path forwards.  If you start tracking and notice, hang on a minute, I haven’t spoken to anyone in the DMs this month…does that have a direct correlation to your revenue?

 

Or you might see you’re really close to a target and give it that last minute push, think ‘ooooh what could I do to hit that?’ and then launch a one off offer and smash your target.

 

How can you do any of this if you are avoiding looking at any information?

 

We cause ourselves so much unnecessary emotional pain when we avoid things but it’s a protection mechanism!  We think if we avoid it we don’t have to look at something negative.  

 

But that leaves zero room for any other outcome!

 

What if it’s not negative?

 

Allow yourself to give your own power back to yourself.  Allow yourself to take the emotion out of it.  Allow yourself to not attach your self worth to your numbers but look at it for clues for growth and improvement and often a well deserved pat on the back!

 

Give yourself that.

 

You’re doing so great!

 

Fx

Fran Excell, Success Mindset Mentor at www.franexcell.com – Helping Business Owners Overcome Stress & Self Sabotage so they can get back their time and feel more in control. 

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