6 Reasons To Have a KPI Spreadsheet For Your Business

You opened your business to enhance lives, yet the reality is that the small business landscape is not an easy one to traverse. Challenges such as cash flow, ever changing consumer demand, and staffing are constant and take a lot of mental energy to manage. There is so much about studio life that cannot be planned for (cough, cough covid) or measured (client moods). The more diligent we are about sending awareness to all the more quiet nooks and crannies of our businesses, the more clarity and influence we will have over the long term potential of serving our communities.

What are we talking about here? We like to call them KPIs or Key Performance Indicators and we propose that paying more attention to some of these metrics beyond revenue will help you fine tune your business over the long term. Common metrics are:

• Recurring revenue
• Members 
• Biggest spenders
• Attendance/visits
• First visits
• First visit retention
• New client conversion
• New client conversion to members
• Capacity
• Intro Offers sold
• Marketing referral categories
• Social media metrics
• Staff performance

When you proactively look at your business beyond revenue you can ensure you are optimally serving your community and their true demands and wellness goals. Below we’ve compiled some of our biggest reasons to do just that: Optimize your studio profitability, serve more people better, and nurture the community you worked so hard to create.

1. Nuance

Looking at your business in different ways gives you a more accurate picture of how your business is doing, what’s working, what isn’t.  It tells a more nuanced story of your business. It helps you understand the uniqueness of your business.

2. Quantitative

Tracking KPIs on a regular basis helps you quantify key areas of your business so that you can focus more on what’s working and less on what’s not. It helps you avoid “feeling” how your business is doing—which is NEVER accurate. I find that many of my feelings about my business are often just plain wrong or only focused on one part of the story that I prefer to look at or based on the mood I’m in.

3. Focus

How do you know which parts of your business are working well and which parts aren’t?  Digging into metrics that are strategic and specific surrounding a particular program, project, or offering allows you to evaluate whether that new idea, strategy, or marketing effort is actually working—so you can spend your money and time wisely. For example, digging in to the KPI details of each program offering at my studio I was able to see workshops weren’t really working. I was able to stop spending so much time on them and instead spent that time creating our first teacher training program which was so much more successful. 

4. Solid foundation

We must learn how to spell even though we have spell check. This doesn’t need to be a forever and everything type project. I’m not suggesting you spend the rest of your life in spreadsheets or your business will fail! This is more of a foundational suggestion to get you into the habit of making a clear business case and decision about every single thing happening under the umbrella of your business. Over time things get more dialed in and you get better at projecting successes.

5. Uniqueness

Having a KPI spreadsheet can be completely unique to you and your business and sales process. Each software system you use likely has its own metrics and data it’s tracking. Putting the data that’s most relevant to your business and your current goals into a place that’s your own helps you stay focused on what’s most important and holds you a little more accountable.

6. Fun

I swear, measuring and tracking your business can be fun! We do not need to go back to middle school math class torture. Think of this as getting your business into shape beyond the metric of revenue. It’s like looking at other measures of health for your body beyond body weight. It’s solving a puzzle. A puzzle that makes your clients happier and healthier versions of themselves. We can all get on board with that!

Now what?

Think of 1-3 areas of your business that you want to make sure are optimized beyond revenue. Perhaps these are new projects or goals for the next quarter or year. Go create a spreadsheet and track one thing about each of those goals. Schedule yourself or one of your team to help you track it again over the next few months. 

Good luck!

Ready to learn more about the most important metrics for barre and yoga studios? Check out my blog.