How do you define success in your business? It’s a question I ask every client – and most of the prospects I ever speak with.
The interesting thing for me is how often the people I speak with don’t have a specific answer. Sure, we can come up with just about anything on the fly. Yet it’s not difficult to tell the difference between established, well-thought-through business goals and those that we sort of find when we need to talk about such things.
Having a way to measure the success of your business, however, is one of the most vital parts of running a business.
It doesn’t matter whether your business is selling products, providing services or selling ad space on your blog – it does you good to have a clear idea of your goals. And, hence, a clear definition of what success looks like for your business.
All my clients use the web in some form these days. So often I hear success measured in visits to their website or page rank in Google. Sure, those are measurable results. But I, as a business advisor, would never consider those to be metrics used to define success of your business.
Let’s think about it for a minute…
You can have a page rank of 6 in Google and get 1000 unique visitors a day to your website or blog. That’s good, right? And most of us would be happy with numbers like this, right? Heck, the way Google’s playing around with page rank these days, I’d be happy to get back to a 6.
Yet, your page rank doesn’t equal income. Nor do any of those visitors guarantee a dime of revenue. Sure, if your website is selling ad space, you might get bits of cash for impressions. And you may be able to get a little higher ad rates with traffic and page rank higher. But you’re certainly not going to make a living on that alone.
And so these aren’t very solid metrics to use for defining your business success. Don’t believe me, ask around and see. Personally, I know more than a dozen bloggers who have highly successful blogs – more successful than mine in terms of traffic, page rank, back links and Technorati rating – who aren’t making enough money to cover their monthly expenses, let alone turn a profit. A couple are good friends that I’m trying to help out.
The point is you want to define the success of your business based on what you’ve set it up to do – make money. That doesn’t mean that you only measure by your bank statement at month’s end or by your bottom line accounts receivable versus accounts payable. There’s more to it than that.
For instance, take whatever you’re doing currently to market your business and track responses from your marketing efforts. Let’s say that one of your goals is to spend some time commenting in forums to drive targeted traffic back to your site that you can convert into leads. It’s a clear goal and something that can be easily measured using basic website statistics. Measuring your success might look something like this:
You posted 50 times in the forum last month. From those posts, you got 41 referring links from the forum to your website. From those visitors 11 commented on a blog post (leaving their email address with you), 6 subscribed to your newsletter and 1 contacted you directly with a question. You can then decide whether those 50 forum posts were worth the effort (I’d say yes, depending on what the commenters and newsletter subscribers do over the next few months).
You see, the idea here is that you set metrics that relate to your business goals. The month of forum posts may or may not directly result in revenue that month. But it’s not always about revenue. To make money you need leads and so the work you did in the forum could have been about generating leads – which you did. Now you just have to create the next metric for converting those leads into paying clients.
Measuring your success isn’t difficult. It just takes a little strategy, planning and forethought. And on the web, tracking results is incredibly easy. You just have to know what you’re tracking – and why. Then you can adjust your efforts for the next round of lead generating activities. That’s how successful business owners use the web.
How are you measuring your business success on the web? Are you at all? If not, why not? Would it change if you had someone to help you (I know someone, personally)?
All-in-all, how do you know if you’re successful with your marketing efforts?
(note: image from victor_nuno on Flickr, 
some rights reserved)
This is so great, and is the perfect time of year to be thinking about these things. I know that I am reflecting on my marketing plan from ’08 while building the plan for ’09 and I’m having to figure out where I spent my efforts marketing online and how those paid off in the end. Easier said than done though, I think, as many of those things are hard to give a quantitative measure to? This is probably why I’m having troubles measuring everything exactly. Looking forward to reading about what others are doing!
~ jackie
In the current Gold Rush to monetize blogs, it does seem that many people are trying to measure the same things and hoping to duplicate someone else’s success.
It’s important to define your own measure(s). Sure, you may have similar goals but expanding on them and creating something new is what’s really fun.
I had a friend who couldn’t figure out why I was tracking server locations of my site visitors and not just concerning myself with numbers. Am I that narcissistic?
No.
I send out targeted mailers. I know they are successful if the recipient goes to my online portfolio. If they visit once, I take one action. If the same company shows visits from several global locations, I do something different.
The point is, I know what my next action should be based on the results.
This wouldn’t work the same for every business model, but it does work.
I’m curious to know what other left field measurements people make. Anyone?
I think its all got to do with conversion. No matter how much PR or traffic you have if its not converting than its useless
“Set metrics that relate to your business goals.” Exactly, Dawud! I like to call them “key metrics.”
For me, success means, first and foremost, converting website visitors and other contacts into consulting clients. So I measure those conversion rates.
After that, it’s things like how many inquiries I get, etc.
Hey Dawud,
Thanks so much for this post. For me as a mom and business owner, I can only get so much done in a day. So, for me, if I can just get a couple things done on my to do list during the day, I feel I am that much closer to fulfilling my goals. Also, staying positive and focused is also a big part of feeling successful for me, even if I am not seeing immediate results from my efforts. And mostly, if I have happy customers that are getting what they need, I feel that is a big part of measuring my success, even if I don’t have as many customers as I hope to have yet!
thanks again!
sarah
I have to second what you have written. In my personal experience I can say for sure that “anything you measure grows”.
It’s all about money made / time spent.
That’s the ONLY way you can measure success.
I’m challenged every time I visit your site.
I agree measuring success is extremely important. If you don’t you’ll really not go anywhere fast. Optimizing can’t be done without knowing which direction to go.
If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.
I measure success by how happy I am and how much money is in the bank.
Great post, and this is exactly what we’re trying to do at Funadvice.
“For instance, take whatever you’re doing currently to market your business and track responses from your marketing efforts.”
This has proved vital to our outreach efforts — tracking our efforts in a shared spreadsheet. This way we can make sure not to overlap, and quickly pull up graphs of our work.
Great post.
Success for me is reaching my business goals. Which ultimately boils down to making more money online every day than I did the previous day.
Excellent points that everyone should keep in mind. I don’t think enough people define success in a way that is clear and/or attainable. Which makes it too easy to fail.
Most of the success I achieve is not measurable in dollars. My marketing efforts don’t tend to bring in a lot of immediate business. However, the blog, website and articles have staying power and do bring in clients and customers for my eBooks.
I measure my success by the feedback I get from my clients, which I’m happy to say is overwhelmingly positive. I don’t make a lot of money, but I am very, very successful.
I started blogging as a hobby and I am happy to read nice comments that readers leave on my blogs. But when Google sent me my first check, I started to think of it is a money-earning project. Though because I still have a job to take care of, my blogs remain to be a hobby until I have enough ‘balls’ to do blogging full-time. Thank you for discussing one of the things that confuses me these past few months. 🙂
Sucess can only be made during a long period of time, short term gains doesnt really mean much.
Recently I’ve been leaving my comfort zone a lot more when it comes to marketing myself and my business. Not everything has been successful money-wise, but I think I’ve been successful in that I spend more of my time doing and less of my time wondering and worrying (two activities that never result in a dime).
So I measure my success in how quickly I’m failing, and then analyze my failures to see if they can be tweaked into success or if I need to go onto to something different.
Some people measure success with hard cold currency.A measure can be that you have found something to do that you enjoy and generates a steady income.But, if you have happy clients that want to do return business with you, then you know you have succeeded.
Well, Dawud. I love to communicate with my readers and I thought that the good relationship will ensure your business success rate! Hence, most of my customers were very happy with the services that I’ve provided!
I’m so pleased I stumbled on your blog. very interesting, and informative. It’s inspired me to do some work on my business – goals, planning etc. Will definitely be checking back for more tips.
Thank you!
I really need this kind of insights because I have my own business too. I define success when I am able to achieve or get the support of my customers like having repeat, happy customers. In relation to internet related business, like what you’ve said, the ranking counts although the totality and importance of the site contents matters too. Thanks for the additional knowledge shared.
As for me it’s necessary to work hard to achieve success in your activity. And your clients must like the results of your work.
Interesting thoughts and conversation. Quality of life is the first thing we thing about when gauging our success.
Our business is a direct result of our personal goals [quality of life] and consequently our personal experiences are a direct result supported by our business.
They are interdependent components of our model and are quality driven to provide the richness and longevity in terms of real success. Quality of life [freedom] = Quality of service/product in business [unique experience differentiator] = Success.
This way of thinking is completely different from the conventional way in that previously one’s business success determined the quality of life. We are learning the opposite is true for us. Simply put, our value proposition is to live and share “heaven on earth”.
We have tons of creative ideas and products but that can be work intensive, so we are building it slowly on purpose, keeping quality in mind for our audience as well as quality of life for our family.
Success for me is the goals you set out to do and accomplish. Regardless if they’re small goals or big goals, or just basically things you do everyday.
Being able to see progress and actually getting results, is success for me. Even if there’s no money involve.
I think the worst you can do is measuring sucess with revenue. That may affect your social status or the women you can impress ( 😉 ) but it’s just the wrong way to look at your sucess.
I guess the best way is to set your goals properly and take a look back if you reached them. I think this is the best approach to look at your own businesses. This however, doesn’t affect others businesses.
Excellent post. It’s impossible to judge your success in anything unless you have a way to track the results of your actions.
I define success, by my health, my mind, and my money status. It really is a mixture of a few different things.
Till then,
Jean
Sure. Page rank and high visitor numbers are not everything. But they are definitly the base of a successful development.
Nice article. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I agree with Stu, in saying its about how much time you put into it and then what profits you make. That is how I define if I have success in my business ventures.
I only set the goal according to my ability and never overdo it. Although it is only a very small success, but I’m satisfy with it.
This is a really important topic for people who are new to the industry and are just moving their businesses online. If you get hung up on metrics like Alexa Rank or PR, you end up missing the broader picture.
For me its hands down being consistent. Being able to have returning customers without losing them.
I also define success like Clam Chowder, by my health, my mind, and my money status
I am communicating with my visitors and I believe that good relationship will take your business to success. Most of my clients are satisfied of my service.
I suppose it depends on your goals. Some blog for cash or for traffic to a cash generating business but others just do it as fodder for a resume or for authority on a subject. These last two are harder to quantify. It’s important to understand the goal of the blog clearly before starting out. If your goal is money then traffic is much less important than conversion rate. Nice Post.
Bruce
Wow , seriously the name dawud caught me on the wrong foot. If you have been following the news recently and the terrorist attack on mumbai, you would have heard the name Dawood (LOL)
But you are a nice guy and nice post.
Like allways, an excellent and usefull post of yours..
If I have love and peace in my life I’m successful, business & money is just there because I need it to survive.
I agree that consistency and persistence are the most important factors here.
This reminds me of a book i read a couple years back, called “The Goal” by Goldratt. I really enjoyed reading this book, the simple basic questions about running a mfg plant, and how do we measure success.
bindu
Success can be measured by several things. Happiness, being healthy, having a family, and successfully achieving career goals.
Those are very wise words and I’m so glad I found this blog as I will surely benefit from reading your posts (past and future).
One thing that I do think this particular post is missing is to clearly state that you talking about success as equal to making money.
That might be true for many websites but for others it might not be about making money at least not in the first place.
But I agree that for the most part making more money is the goal for most website owners 🙂
I usually think of measuring success in the amount of time put in, and the amount you earn out of it.
great post. money is most important.
This article makes me laugh a little because it is so true and because the majority are not aware of it.
I think around 90% still believes and focuses on rank/traffic statistics, when the bottom line of the game is how much you want to make.
I personally know web sites that are ranked 30,000 and below from alexa.com yet makes the same amount of money with other web sites that are ranked around 500,000.
Success is a loose term. I mean, having a site with a good ranking/traffic can be classified as a success. As an owner of a web site, what is your number one priority or goal?
Thanks for this post – because it reminds me of why I am measuring and comparing simple monthly bottom line numbers (# of online sales and $ in sales). Watching these figures increase over the past several months – slight though it may be – demonstrates that my efforts are worthy.
Alexa only counts when people have the toolbar installed. 3 people with alexa installed can make a very unpopular site seem popular on alexa if another site has 1000 visitors a day.
Don’t put too much stock into Alexa Rankings.
Excellent post. It’s impossible to judge your success in anything unless you have a way to track the results of your actions.
I understand how a self-employed businessperson can get carried away juggling the operations of their business with personal/family commitments. If your business model is simple enough, it’s easy to delude yourself into believing that taking care of your customers is all you have to do to succeed. Having said that, I agree with your article and believe it is very sound advice. Even if your business is generating more revenue than expected, it is of utmost importance to have goals in place and to work out the accounting/financial side of business completely.
Great read..success is crazy, we have to know where we are going to get there, but of course one can never know until they travel the path.
While I agree in principle, knowing your efforts return money might tell you if they work, but it does not tell you if you are on the best course for your business.
One “campaign” might be more successful than another…but the low traffic / high yield blogs might just be in a much better niche.
A funny thing I’ve noticed with one of my sites is this…if I am 10th on Google, I get a lot more sales than if I am 9 – 5. Being in the middle isn’t so great. The best two options are 10th or above the fold. I found that to be interesting. People look at the first four results (above the fold), then they drop to 10th and work back up from there. That being said, you have to go through 9 – 5 to get to 4 – 1.
I depends what you define as success…just like life. Some people will value money, others less tangible rewards like relationships with readers.
Thanks for provoking this conversation.
Very good points you make. It’s so important to be aware of what you’d like to achieve and keep a record of your progress otherwise you can start feeling a little like you’re not getting anywhere. Whenever I feel a little deflated I look back at where I was 6 months or a year ago and it always gives me a pleasant surprise at how far I’ve come – as modest as it is!
You should always measure your success because only this way you will be able to improve your life everyday.
good points, I find it’s easy to equate being busy with being successful but it is really important to keep that cash flow and profitability are kept in mind when judging success.
Reading this post makes me wonder, how do we really measure up the success of a business. And it made me realize, it’s when your business achieved your goal. of course when someone starts a business, he or she has this goal, and if it is met, that’s when we could say it is successful.
It is important to measure success to know your areas of improvement. I can only say I am successful is I ran out of things to do to improve what I am doing..
While traffic and conversion metrics need to be thought of in more concrete terms, the word, “success,” is more amorphous.
Success may be measured in how we contributed to a greater understanding of our field. Helping others certainly offers an element of success/satisfaction.
Referrals from those we’ve helped tend to increase our “success quotient.” One may not have a high traffic or conversion rate, but still develop a loyal following where a large part of the customer base refers others voluntarily.
For many entrepreneurs, success may be defined by not how much money they secure but by the fact that they are earning “enough” — remaining in business, despite a challenging economy, and practicing business with humanistic principles.
Best Regards,
Andy Lax
I agree that consistency, persistence are the most important factors..
and never say Give UP..
I have two primary ways of measuring. The 2nd one, right now, is mostly irrelevant to me although nice to have… and that one is income.
The first way I’m measuring effectiveness is confirmed subscribers to my newsletter.
This metric isn’t easy to track for all sources (like forum posting), though if I’m doing nothing new other than a single tactic it is easy to see if that tactic brought in more subscribers (since my subscribe rate is pretty constant and generally difficult to increase).
For JVs and special promotions it’s very easy to track since I create customized landing pages for each major promo.
Right now my website brings in about 6k visitors per month. My plan is to double that by March, so I should also see a double in subscribers as well.
That’s a target for only natural, free, recurring traffic. Then once that foundation is there, later this year I plan to try some Ezine advertising.
My growth target is 100,000 subscribers by Jan 1 2011. Very lofty goal, but I believe I can get there.
Then sometime in 2010 I’ll start actually setting income / revenue targets.
For myself, revenue is everything. PR will do nothing if the blog or website do not have content. Content I talk about is not only quality contents but also huge of contents. In my own test, have huge low quality content also can make money good, even with only PR3
I also have to chime in on PR. You can certainly make money without having a great PR. For one, you can have great success with Pay Per Click campaigns.
In general, everyone will have their own definition of what is success. Money is not always the bottom line. Some people trade making less money for having more time.
I think its all got to do with conversion. No matter how much PR or traffic you have if its not converting than its useless
Success didn’t fall from the sky, but it is 10 percent of inspiration + 90 percent of perspiration…
So, never give up and keep the faith on yourself! The success is coming its way soon…
Typically, I set personal goals for myself at the beginning of every week. The only thing I can do is position myself to make money to the best of my ability. If I succeed in doing what I set out to do, I consider myself a success.
Great post.
One should always be thinking of their marketing strategy.
Increasing your conversion rate involves a lot of different things. Yes, you have to have traffic (people visiting you) but once the people get there, they have to feel compelled to do what you want them to do. Getting the people/customers to stick around, and building relationships with them is what matters.
Nice post, I love the whole blog too.
Personally, I set goals for the year then refine them into goals for 1/4 of a year then for month/week and day.
If you set goals this way everything seems achievable.
I dont quite agree with you. I work as a quality assurance officer, and I know by heart that measuring success is not that simple. It takes a lot of effort to determine the correct components and variables. I think you should not treat business as equal on term of determining success. But it’s a very nice thought you have here 🙂
I enjoyed the post.
I think success is determined by the number of visitors that talk positively about your blog. Anybody can visit, but if the comment and recommend…that’s a great determining factor
I think its a hard question, even for me..because as I read the post I thought about my blog, and I think I really need to put more effort into measuring my success, because frankly I’m not
Thank You for this post..
Great post. Some days I focus on making money but other days I focus on giving a better service to my users. Often the goals require different strategies. If I put adsense on every page of my site, will anyone like the site enough to link without my action. If you really present useful information like there is on this blog, the money will come, right.
I am measuring a Success of my website on the Basis of Ranking, Traffic and Conversions….
First of all I am checking that ranking of my websites is on top 10 or not…..
Then I will try to grow the traffic of my websites through blogging…..
and they I want to convert those visitors into my customers…..
If all these things are OK… then I can say that I am going in the right direction….
Success should be measured in terms of achievement of your long term goals. This is where half of those who try – fail. Its good to have long term goals but in order to achieve them we should set short term goals that we can actually accomplish and can measure. My goals as of now have been to move up in google results and I have been doing just that. Every time I achieve my short-term goal I make another and keep pushing until I get it. Money in the bank is the ultimate goal but its how we get there that matters.
With regard to being successful on the internet? Communicating and being socially active. Be committed, stay focused, remember your goal you had when starting your business, keep working persistent. That is just a few of the stuff, I know. But I believe these are of the obvious ones one need to look at to make your internet business (or any one in general) a success. Overall, you really need to be orientated, self-motivated and have the “right attitude” to be a true success . . .
I think its important to have goals, and to check progress toward goals. But its important that the goals be realistic.
food for thought. thanks
very interesting information its very true that you try to set goals but yet set them in a way that they can be achieved or yet deemed in a realistic manner
To answer the question is the easy part, every one running a business had established a goal, and every step his business take forward closer to that goal is a success. however with each step you can find that your expectations were wrong. it means a problem with your business plan and strategies. changing and enhancement is also a success that mean you are becoming more experienced and have more knowledge.
Excellent article. I never realized that page rank could be that misleading. You always post great stuff, thanks!
Success is measured not only in a span of time but by knowing that your goal is achieve in the way you want it to be. How much you earned or how many visited your site would just be an incentive.
According to my opinion, success is measured from the revenue of whole business offline or online. I can’t predict my site page rank, traffic, income and the change of search engine. I don’t rely on all of my businesses to search engine. So, running business offline and online is good choice.
Thanks.
Couldn’t deny that there are lots of business personnel doesn’t have a specific goals on what want to achieve when setting up a website. Their intention are just to create awareness.This is a good reminder article.
Success is a long, long road of small steps, failures and wins. Goals are set easily, but are not kept fast. This is a great article because it reminds me of how much planning and work a web or blog owner must make in order to get out there and be someone.
Good vibes to all!
I agree with Stu, it’s all about what’s put into the project and what the ROI is.
I agree that consistency and persistence are the most important factors here. And keeping up goood work.
thanks I never realized that page rank could be that misleading. You always post great stuff, thanks!
thanks That is just a few of the stuff, I know. But I believe these are of the obvious ones one need to look at to make your internet business (or any one in general) a success. Overall, you really need to be orientated, self-motivated and have the “right attitude” to be a true success . . .
I’ve never been one to calculate ROI on my efforts. I stay focused on providing good content for my customers (readers) and believe that everything will take care of itself. That philosophy has served me well 😉
Success is measured on how much you have accomplished. It is good to measure success to know your goals and where you are at.
I think we all have our different measurements for success. Some base it on the profits made, some base it on the amount of satisfaction gained from their work. There is a Swedish proverb that states “God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.” Thus , i think success is the motivation to look for those worms 🙂
I think we should our sites as more interactive as it possible. In this case our visitors will update the site content, even when we sleep, eat or spending our holidays far away from computer. So, your site will be updated daily, Search Engines will visit it qute often, and we’ll get more and visitors.
So success for me – is each new user registered on site, or each new post on my blog, forum or address book.
Success in life cannot be measure in any monetary value. But instead it can be measured on the achievements that we attain upon pursuing every endeavor that we do.
My website is only a very small part time gig for myself, and some weeks I only get 2-3 hours to work on it, and I am either making comments for back links or creating new content. I’m not at the point to measure in detail my success until I get more time to work on my site. However, I scratch my head when I read in SEO forums that people are spending 40-50+ hours a week creating back links. If I had 40 hours a week to work on my websites, I would be putting in place measurements to determine if 40 hours a week for back linking is really creating any worthwhile return.
good article .. and I agree that consistency, persistence are the most important factors..
You are so right! So many people are using the internet and its free services to make a profit. I tried my hand in some marketing but it didn’t work out for me.
I think its a hard question, even for me..because as I read the post I thought about my blog, and I think I really need to put more effort into measuring my success, because frankly I’m not
Thank You for this post..
I use to be worried about page rankings and where I was in the search engines rakings, now this does not bother me any more. The only thing that matters is the amount of money in the bank at the end of the day.
There are some really nice tips here Thanks.
Traffic carnt be ignored because it is life of your site. All that matters at the end of the day is how much money is in the.
If my clients learn me about me – if they recommend my website, if they come back again – I call that a win.
Surely, success can be measured by the satisfaction of your. client or customer. Measuring by purely financial factors doesn’t show those who are unhappy and therefore class your work as unsuccessful, but it really depends on your way of thinking and company objectives.
There are a variety of measures of business success. Not all of them are eqivalent. The standard for publically held companies is stock price. Another might be return on investment although this typically is a longer term measure. Finally a variety of issues including market share, competitive advantage, and other issues that most analysts look at in analyzing or valuing share prices can also be considered indirect measures of company success.
in the present world o marketing choices ,there are various range o things to choose from, try promote your site on various classifields and PROMOTE YOUR SITE FOR FREE
I love to communicate with my readers and I thought that the good relationship will ensure your business success rate! Hence, most of my customers were very happy with the services that I’ve provided!
It really depends on your business model. I’ve seen websites make way more money with a PR2 when compared to somebody with a PR6.
I would term myself successful when I start to see unique hits on my site growing along with my reputation on the web growing, if I am able to win the trust of my customers and web readers along with delivering them what they’re expecting from me is success. It’s not easy to win anyone’s trust but it all takes time to build your brand and reputation so if a brand is trusted, it’s successful.
Yes, I market my Anaheim CPA website on the internet and very aware of the traffic statistics. I measure success by calls that I deem through my online presence. Conversion has to be included in success online.
I’ve been running my business for years and I would say its been a success, maybe not to the level I would like to reach but its on its way 🙂
es, I market my Anaheim CPA website on the internet and very aware of the traffic statistics.maybe not to the level I would like to reach but its on its way
?ts Really good subject
Measuring results will tell you when you’re doing something that works, and it’s always a good idea to expand on those kinds of endeavors. When something isn’t a success or hurts you, you can stop wasting time and other resources on it.
Hi ! thanks for the time for sharing your thoughts. When I read your article, I paused and Asked myself about measuring my success. Very nice post!
Great case in point Dawud.I love the three things you pointed out which are strategy, planning and forethought..It makes sense to me.
The first rule of success, and the one that supercedes all others, is to have energy. It is important to know how to concentrate it, how to focus it on important things instead of frittering it away on trivia.
Great post, strategy is definitely key to success, cannot stress this point enough to my students.
Surely one of the answers to success is management of good quality because it is she who will show you what to do and what better way to go, because you have a good basis of what you need, than it has in abundance and that is missing. So getting through to the success of a goal or objective. Great post to stop and reflect on our attitudes towards our company.
Yes, very interesting and compelling article here. I agree that strategy is key…..thanks for sharing this helpful insight.
Great post.
Although ‘measurement’ is key for knowing exactly what you’re doing right and wrong, I think it’s important not to measure everything.
In today’s social media obsessed world, too many people get caught up with useless metrics that mean nothing in terms of ROI.
I’ve always been a strong believer in measuring you’re level of success in a physical way. For example in my line of work, I have a spreadsheet. I always think that it acts as a motivation nmore than anything
Measurements are a great idea. Some complimentary ones are a good idea too, for example I monitor the number of new clients per month, whilst at the same time monitoring the number of clients leaving, due to closing their business, going back into the job market etc.
Simple systems can be put in place, they don’t necessarily have to be hi-tech, perhaps just a white board in an office can focus the team with the key metrics.
How do I measure the success of my business? Well, I have two basic questions that I ask myself. The first is am I making a decent amount of money from the effort I’m putting into the business. And the second is are my customers getting value for money and satisfaction from the service I’m delivering? If the answer is yes to both questions, I’m doing well.
Hi Dawud. You’re totally right. You need to measure success, since results aren’t always instant.
I compare it to planting a tree. You plant the little seeds, you care for them, water them when needed etc. It might take months (even years for a real tree) before you will see the results.
But when you do, it is crucial to know what exactly caused the success, so you can do more of the same!
No matter how many we’re fail, we must stay on track. Never give up.
Because success isn’t as easy as turning your back hand, but it needs a time and process.
Good point. I agree that we should measure our success from time to time so that we can check on the shortcomings and work for more success. Measuring success is all about keeping track of how much we’ve achieved and how much we can still achieve. Its a very positive attitude to measure success.
wow lot’s of comment love on this page. But we’re all success hungry and success needs to always be measured to make sure you’re hitting your goals.
Sorry for the above incomplete post.
We all need to define what success means to us and then measure it so that we can determine if we are successful.
I totally agree with this sentiment and in one fo my blogs which I consider a Christian ministry, I define success as the number of people who email or leave comments saying that the content has really helped them in some aspect of their spiritual life.
One way to measure success by reaching your company’s goals.
Success in not about visitors, it’s about customers. Yes, of course,more vistors, more customers. But. If you want to measure. You can measure your success by targeting your website and making the revenue higher per visitor. Do not trust the page rank. Trust the trust rank by open site explorer.
If you don’t measure, you don’t know where you’re going to. It’s like putting a destination in the GPS, and then turning the screen and sound off…. You probably won’t arrive at your destination 🙂 But if you track your progress and make sure you’re actually on the right track, it’s so much easier to reach your goals!
I agree. In my world I measure by family, friends and other loved ones in my life. That is my measure. How many people would show up to help you at your lowest point.
You are definitely right, it’s not about how much revenue you earn, it about how much revenue with relation to what effort that has been put to get this revenue
You are definitely right, it?s not about how much income you generate, it about how much income with regards to what attempt that has been put to get this revenue
I would say that your business success in the final analysis is down to how fully booked you are going into the future and how much high a price are you able to charge for your services combined with how much free time you have.
SEO, list size, site PR, traffic are all means of getting to that goal.
Consistency and perseverance are keys to success in any sphere of life.Its very nice blog and great service.I found so many interesting stuff in your blog,especially on this post. I learned a lot, it?s really instructive and motivating for life.Thanks for posting.
Surely, there are too many factors that determine how successful we are.
But there will be no one who is so successful without facing challenges. Yet we do not have to lose confidence.
Confidence is the key
Good post. You are the one who decides exactly what it means to be successful in any area of your life. The time to make that decision is during the goal setting process. Doing so will allow you to identify and celebrate each personal success along the way.
you may determined as job related information about your site. but first step is how to manage business process with all leadership today .if management is way with a right condition then we will success in business .
Surely one of the answers to success is management of good quality because it is she who will show you what to do and what better way to go, because you have a good basis of what you need, than it has in abundance and that is missing. So getting through to the success of a goal or objective. Great post to stop and reflect on our attitudes towards our company
I agree measuring success is extremely important but not only this to improve the PR. All main thinks we have to concentrate to get good search page result