Preface: <\/i><\/b>For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” – <\/i>James 1:23-24 \u00a0(KJV)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
The Importance of Good Information<\/b><\/p>\n
Imagine you are rowing your boat upstream in a creek while drinking from a fire hose as water overflows the sides and leaks in through a hole in the floor. Water surrounds and pushes you. \u00a0Running a business can be like that. Information can nearly inundate an entrepreneur. There are reports on your desk of work that was completed, and someone is standing at your desk talking to you. Meanwhile, the phone rings incessantly in the background.<\/p>\n
If you need to go somewhere in a boat and water is inundating you, the solution is not to stay out of the water. The solution is to use the water wisely to get you where you should go. Likewise, business owners may be flooded with information. \u00a0The answer is not to eliminate information. \u00a0Instead, gather the correct information and apply it wisely.<\/p>\n
What Information to Get?<\/b><\/p>\n
First, what information should a business owner seek out? Although the exact information that is helpful may vary from business to business, here are examples that might be useful.<\/p>\n
What do customers want?<\/b> This question could apply to former customers (why did they leave?), current customers (why are they buying from me?), and future customers (why would someone else want to buy from me?).<\/p>\n
What can we provide?<\/b> What product or service can your business offer? At first, this question might sound silly. \u00a0Business owners already know what they do, right? Is there perhaps a new offering or a tweak to an existing offering that be helpful? For example, suppose a business specializes in roofing. \u00a0Would there be benefit in adding siding to the lineup of work? Maybe or maybe not but asking what you can provide with excellence is a good question.<\/p>\n
What have we done?<\/b> You can gather information on how many products you have sold. For example, perhaps a business sold 1,000 green widgets and 1,500 blue widgets. \u00a0You can gather information on what you have done financially. \u00a0How much were your sales, your profits, your debts repaid or incurred?<\/p>\n
How did we do it?<\/b> \u00a0Businesses can document their processes for work. \u00a0If you develop a great way to efficiently work with excellence, consider documenting that information to help you repeat that work. Use that process to train new employees to learn and repeat that good work. \u00a0Documented processes don\u2019t need to be volumes upon volumes of data. \u00a0To start, document the most important part of the most important processes.<\/p>\n
Getting Information<\/b><\/p>\n
Ask<\/b>
\nIf you want to know something, ask questions. \u00a0Whom should we ask? \u00a0First, consider asking yourself. \u00a0Perhaps if you sit down and think about it, the answer might come to you. \u00a0Also, consider asking your customers. \u00a0Without customers, businesses die. \u00a0Customers are a wealth of information. \u00a0Also, ask other business owners. \u00a0Consider joining a business group of like-minded business owners who can encourage each other and provide valuable information.<\/p>\n
Seek<\/b>
\nSometimes, simply asking a question might not get you an answer. \u00a0The person you ask might not know. \u00a0You might have to seek diligently for it.<\/p>\n
There may be books and articles that contain knowledge that\u2019s applicable to you. \u00a0Have you checked to see if there are periodicals or books that would help you in your business?<\/p>\n
In some cases, seek out specialists. \u00a0If you have a legal question, consider reaching out to an attorney. \u00a0If you have a tax question, talk with your accountant. \u00a0If you have a product question, consider calling the manufacturer of that product to see if they have input.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you might need to experiment and develop something yourself. \u00a0If you want a product to accomplish something new, you may need to use trial and error to accomplish that.<\/p>\n
In some cases, you might need to travel somewhere to see other businesses and talk with them to learn more about how they do things. You might go visit the manufacturer of a product you buy and talk face-to-face and get a hands-on demonstration.<\/p>\n
Record<\/b>
\nOne fabulous source of information is your records if you track information in an accessible way. \u00a0If all your receipts, bills, and bank deposit slips are thrown in a shoebox and never organized, it might be hard to know the health of your business. \u00a0On the other hand, if detailed accounting records are kept, that information might be very helpful.<\/p>\n
What information should you record? \u00a0This can vary from business to business. \u00a0Think about your business, and what information you want to know. \u00a0Do you want to know how many widgets you manufactured, how many customers you have, what months have the highest sales, which states you ship products into, or what do you want to know? \u00a0Consider asking others with a similar business what information they record.<\/p>\n
Review<\/b>
\nThe information that is around us might not be helpful if we don\u2019t review it. \u00a0Do you have a regular rhythm of reviewing your information and making changes accordingly? \u00a0How does your information from last month compare to the previous month? \u00a0Is it the same, better, or worse? \u00a0Do you have industry information to compare it to?<\/p>\n
Acting on the Information<\/b><\/p>\n
A person could dehydrate in the middle of a creek if they didn\u2019t drink the water that surrounded them. \u00a0What will you do with the information that surrounds you? \u00a0Are their products that you should stop selling, or tweak? \u00a0Are there new products that you should start selling? Is there a new state in which to register for sales tax?<\/p>\n
After you gather information, wisely consider your next steps. After you decide what you need to do, then go and do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Preface: For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” – James 1:23-24 \u00a0(KJV) The Importance of Good Information Imagine you … Continue reading “The Importance of Good Information”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2268"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2277,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions\/2277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saudercpa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}