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 (KJV)
The Importance of Good Information
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. Running 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.
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. The answer is not to eliminate information. Instead, gather the correct information and apply it wisely.
What Information to Get?
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.
What do customers want? 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?).
What can we provide? What product or service can your business offer? At first, this question might sound silly. Business 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. Would 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.
What have we done? 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. You can gather information on what you have done financially. How much were your sales, your profits, your debts repaid or incurred?
How did we do it? Businesses can document their processes for work. If 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. Documented processes don’t need to be volumes upon volumes of data. To start, document the most important part of the most important processes.
Getting Information
Ask
If you want to know something, ask questions. Whom should we ask? First, consider asking yourself. Perhaps if you sit down and think about it, the answer might come to you. Also, consider asking your customers. Without customers, businesses die. Customers are a wealth of information. Also, ask other business owners. Consider joining a business group of like-minded business owners who can encourage each other and provide valuable information.
Seek
Sometimes, simply asking a question might not get you an answer. The person you ask might not know. You might have to seek diligently for it.
There may be books and articles that contain knowledge that’s applicable to you. Have you checked to see if there are periodicals or books that would help you in your business?
In some cases, seek out specialists. If you have a legal question, consider reaching out to an attorney. If you have a tax question, talk with your accountant. If you have a product question, consider calling the manufacturer of that product to see if they have input.
Sometimes you might need to experiment and develop something yourself. If you want a product to accomplish something new, you may need to use trial and error to accomplish that.
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.
Record
One fabulous source of information is your records if you track information in an accessible way. If 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. On the other hand, if detailed accounting records are kept, that information might be very helpful.
What information should you record? This can vary from business to business. Think about your business, and what information you want to know. Do 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? Consider asking others with a similar business what information they record.
Review
The information that is around us might not be helpful if we don’t review it. Do you have a regular rhythm of reviewing your information and making changes accordingly? How does your information from last month compare to the previous month? Is it the same, better, or worse? Do you have industry information to compare it to?
Acting on the Information
A person could dehydrate in the middle of a creek if they didn’t drink the water that surrounded them. What will you do with the information that surrounds you? Are their products that you should stop selling, or tweak? Are there new products that you should start selling? Is there a new state in which to register for sales tax?
After you gather information, wisely consider your next steps. After you decide what you need to do, then go and do it.