Goals are an important element of measuring business success. Realistic, well-framed goals are even more important.
Sales projections are helpful, too; provided that last year’s numbers don’t fool you. Was there some anomaly that is not going to occur this year? You know… like a Super Bowl in your town. Did you have a client or referral source that drove a disproportionately large amount of business your way? Has the key person move on, or had the relationship changed (for better or worse)?
American business people are constantly trying to predict the future. For good reason. Food service companies need to order food, based on anticipated attendance at events. Hotels need to assign the optimum room for the crowd size. One doesn’t want 125 guests in a room that should accommodate 400.
What I hear… and this isn’t news: More events are getting scheduled on short notice. Get used to it. More important… talk to your employees, and make sure they get comfortable with it.
I believe that most small business owners/managers can tell you many bookings that had last month. They can tell you how many dollars were deposited in the same time frame.
But can they articulate the variable costs per job (on average), the marketing expense (on average) per event, or the actual dollars generated for last month’s events (not the cash flow of last month’s deposits)?
Take some time to reassess what you really know about your business, and how it’s measured. If you know the numbers, with realistic parameters, it’ easier to take the right actions, going forward.
Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
Social Media Connections