If success is about finding and following your passion, why does math have to come along and ruin the party? Because passion isn’t enough. Whatever our business is, you need to measure different things to grow your business.
Last week with a Business Coaching client in Edmond, Oklahoma, we were working to identify the least common denominator of value in his business. Another math term, hmm?
To respect client privacy, let’s look at the process using a different business type.
Picture a bicycle repair shop.
The discussion was about repair tickets for each client that brings their bike for diagnosis and repair. The business management software revolved around tickets. But not all tickets are not created equal.
Each ticket includes separate repair jobs. The job of the repair technician is to look over the bikes and determine any repairs that should be considered by the client.
Enter the service manager. Their job is to explain the different jobs on a client’s ticket in a way that they understand the benefits and costs of getting or deferring the repairs to their bicycle. Often there are savings for both parties having multiple items worked on in both convenience and less overall labor costs.
Because there are variables in every ticket, “jobs” revealed itself as the best unit of success measurement. Thorough technicians identify more jobs per ticket and better service advisors help clients decide to get more jobs done per ticket.
The business owner brought up the margins on bicycle parts as well as labor. Both of those had to be quoted according to his standards but often were not.
After all, things were considered, 4 variables in each ticket were identified and he is now focused on running the shop daily around a focus on total “jobs” vs. “tickets”.
The business owner is now coaching his techs to be thorough in their diagnoses to include all recommended jobs and those are tracked on a high visibility whiteboard that shows total tickets created, total jobs, and the individual tech’s job/ticket average. This allows them to see their performance compared to the rest of the staff as well as the company standards. This brings some natural peer pressure into the equation as well as accountability (Without the owner having to breathe down anyone’s neck).
The same thing is being done with the service advisors; how many jobs are they assisting clients to get done. He is displaying how many jobs per ticket in a high visibility location. The entire staff can see what everyone else is contributing. To make sure margins are observed, the owner created a sign-off sheet that each advisor must use to get the owner’s approval on any parts or labor quoted below the standard margin.
The next math project will focus on average hours per job. This answer will impact overall revenue and profit goals as well as shop and staff size. So Math does matter, especially when numbers have dollar signs in front of them.
What is the most fundamental unit of value metric in your business? If you don’t know, reach out. We can figure it out together.
Business owners and entrepreneurs are invited to take my Free Online Assessment on the main page of the 7th Gear Website