Big Business Rule No 2
Measure (almost) Everything.

If we asked you which brand of coffee a 32 year old woman, living alone, with 3 cats, a subsription to Country Life, a household income of £42,000 per annum and who dyes her hair red in winter, but blond in summer is most likely to buy, would you know? Nope, us either. But we bet Tesco do.

Tesco collect and use this information because it helps them target their customers more effectively and make more profit. For most smaller organisations this level of information is unavailable, and unnecessary. But…. if the two main things which affect your profit are the money you spend and how you use your time, you’d be mad not to keep a very careful track of that data. Wouldn’t you?

Even the smallest organisations can, and should collect and analyse data about their time and their spending. For instance, do you know what proportion of your time you spend networking, using social media, meeting clients, calling people, filing accounts, and how much of your income these activities relate to?

This blog entry is part of a series, so check back for others, or if you want to read more about our approach to Big Business Thinking, click here: http://rubystarassociates.co.uk/2011/06/big-business-booster/