In order to run a profitable remodeling company, you have to understand your business inside and out. That is why Remodeler’s Advantage pushes its members to measure every aspect of the business.

Everything from your marketing to your financials, it is important to measure key data points and make decisions based on that data to push your business forward.

But the reality is that most company owners do not track those ever-important metrics for their company. There are too many hurdles. You have to jump from one platform to the next just to extract the data (what’s my Google Analytics password again?).

Depending on the platform, finding the data can be extremely hard. Finally, you have to make sense of all of that data so that you can make good business decisions.

In short, it’s hard.

Why you should use dashboards

Dashboards are dynamic reporting systems that allow you to get a glimpse into every aspect of your business. Instead of constantly jumping from one platform to the next trying to find those key data points, company dashboards allow you to view your metrics at anytime and at a glance.

• Easy to access.
• All metrics in one place.
• Data updates regularly so you know it’s current.
• Allows you to easily identify company trends.

Here is a snapshot of a marketing performance dashboard just as an example:

What Metrics Should You Track?

There are thousands of datapoints that could be measured and tracked in your business. But just because you can measure something doesn’t mean that you should measure something.

So what areas of the business should you track on your dashboards? The first place to start is to establish your goals for the company, and most often this starts with financial goals. However, it is important to understand what activities need to be accomplished each month to accomplish your financial goals. Whether it is tracking metrics such as website conversion rate or metrics around payroll, you should be clear on how each one affects your ultimate company/financial goals.

Based on our countless conversations with remodeling company owners, we believe that marketing, sales, and financial metrics are a few of the most important goals within every remodeling company and is a good place to start.

We created a list of 50 metrics that you should consider for your company. Click here to download the excel spreadsheet.

Choosing Good Metrics

Not all metrics are created equal. Within the marketing department alone, there are hundreds of data points that you could track. So what are the attributes of a good metric? Here are some things to look for.

A good metric will change the way you behave.
Every metric that you choose to track should prompt you to act. Maybe the action is a small adjustment in your social media strategy. Or maybe a metric will cause you to want to change your sales process. Regardless, a good metric will cause you to make decisions.

A good metric will reveal trends and not just moments in time.
Often times, business owners will look at snapshot metrics. Examples of these might be # website visits, # of new leads, etc. While these metrics are very valuable, and often establish baseline metrics, these are not the only metrics to consider.

In addition to your snapshot metrics you should look at metrics that show you “movement” toward your business goals. A metric such as “our website has a 2% conversion rate” is important to know, but a better metric might be “our website increased conversions by 12% compared to last month.” When comparing a metric to another, you are able to determine trends that could be impacting your company.

A good metric is not a vanity metric.
A vanity metric is a metric that may look good on the surface, but does not reveal the true health of your business activities. For example, having thousands of Facebook followers looks good on paper, but number of engaged Facebook followers is infinitely more valuable for you to know.

When Should You Review Your Dashboards

It depends! There are some metrics that you will want to measure weekly, and there are others that you will want to review monthly, quarterly, or annually. As an example, here are a few sales metrics that serve as examples for each timeframe:

Weekly

• # of calls/emails/tasks completed by sales team
• # of new appointments set
• # of raw leads created

Monthly

• # of new deals created
• # of deals closed
• Conversion rate from lead to closed deal
• Revenue in each stage of pipeline

Quarterly

• # of new deals closed
• Average # of days to close
• Total Revenue

Yearly

• Total Revenue
• Total # of Deals Closed
• Top Sources of New Deals
• Reasons Deals Were Lost

Steps to Create Your Own Dashboards

Here are a few steps and tools to consider as you begin building out your own company dashboards:

• Determine what metrics should be tracked for your company
• Understand where you will need to get this data from
• Use tools such as Databox or Countly to create your dashboards
• Setup systems to review your dashboards on a regular basis

Note: You can set up dashboards within tools like Google Analytics. However, this still keeps reports isolated and forces you to jump from one platform to another.

Dashboards Will Not Solve Your Problems, But They Will Guide You to the Answers

We have talked a lot about how and why Dashboards can help you run your company better. However, we fully realize that this is no silver bullet. Instead, we believe that adding more tools to your toolbelt will help you to make better decisions and come up with creative solutions for your company.