Every business owner thinks he/she knows exactly how their business is doing. After all, their office is their lifeblood, the reason for their existence. An owner rises in the morning thinking of new ways to increase business and goes to sleep at night reviewing his/her day’s performance. Even so, the question still comes up – Do you really know how your business is performing?
Listed below is a little questionnaire taken from a business evaluation plan. It should only take a few minutes to complete and it might just help you achieve a better understanding of your business.
DO NOT fill out this questionnaire on-line. Print off a copy and then fill it out.
This is a test of your personal knowledge. DO NOT do any detailed search of your records for the following information, but simply fill in what you believe are accurate numbers.
Employee Turnover:
How many new employees have you hired in the past 18 months? ____________
How many employees in the past 18 months have quit? ____ Been fired? ______
Sales Related:
Please indicate the approximate percentage of your clients that you believe fall into the following groups.
Affluent ____% Middle Class _____% Blue Collar _____% Low Income ______%
Please indicate the percentage of your instrument sales that you believe fall into the following categories.
Premium _____% Mid-Level ____% Basic ____% Medicaid, etc. _____%
What do you believe is the distance from your office within which 75% of your clients live? ______ miles
What was your Gross sales figure for your last fiscal year? $_______________
What was your Net sales (gross minus returns) for the same year? $_______________
Do you do diagnostic Audiology? ______
If yes, approximately what percentage of your business does it represent?
# of Clients ____/week $ sales ____/week Time used _____/week
List any specific ethnic or religious groups that are a significant percentage of your client base.
________________________________% _________________________________%
________________________________% _________________________________%
If you have branch offices, please indicate the approximate percentage of your total sales each office generates including your primary office.
________________________________% _________________________________%
________________________________% _________________________________%
________________________________% _________________________________%
Now here is the test. Do a search of your records and then answer the same questions again. Your research can be as detailed or fast as you want.
How did you do? Are there some areas of your business where what you think is true and what your records say, differ? Does your knowledge of your business need an update? Since most people think their business is doing better than it really is, I hope you can say that your answers were accurate. If not, what are you going to do about it?
Read more on this subject in succeeding posts.
