Business owners sometimes find it difficult to compare the work and resources being invested in the business with its impact on business growth. It is often tempting to quantify (for example sales or income) in numbers, while your business is doing well in terms of numbers, is it doing well when compared to the business’s growth.

While what counts as growth is defined differently by each business, you should be able to use what counts to your business to determine and track your business growth. With the following tips, you will be able to properly track your business growth and overall performance.

Here are nine steps to track your business growth

1. Define your long-term goals and what counts as success to you

Your goals must be challenging but realistic and achievable, you can break your long-term goals into short term so as you attain each you are a step closer to achieving the overall long-term goal. Ensure that your goals are measurable and not vague, specific as to what you want to achieve.

2. Set up meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The next step in tracking your business growth is to set up meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

A KPI is a metric that helps you measure your business performance. It helps keep track of how well your company is doing, and it can be used to gauge whether or not you’re on track with achieving certain goals.

KPIs are often financial in nature, but they don’t have to be—they can also be non-financial like measuring customer satisfaction or employee morale.

3. Develop methods to collect, organize and analyze your business data

Business intelligence tools can help you organize your data into a dashboard that allows you to see at a glance the status of different aspects of your business.

The key is to use one tool that fits all of your requirements and makes it easy for you to drill down into specific areas or use the same tool across multiple projects or functions in order to make comparisons between them.

4. Keep track of your actual income compared to your goal income

One of the most important things that you can do to track your business growth is to compare actual income to goal income.

This will help you identify areas where your business needs improvement, and give you an idea of how much time and effort it will take for your company to reach its full potential.

You’re already tracking the average monthly revenue per user or customer? Great! Just make sure that every time someone signs up for an account, they also complete their first purchase (or some other action that indicates a purchase).

5. Track your expenses

Tracking your business expenses is one of the most important steps to take, as it will help you grow your business.

Track all of your monthly purchases and bills in a spreadsheet or journal. This can be done manually by writing down all of the information on paper and then entering it into a computer program afterward or automatically through a mobile app like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

Add columns for each expense category (e.g., rent), then enter data into each column as you go through each page in order to keep track of them easily at any given time during the month.

Track all cash transactions from day one until the end date (or at least until there are no more cash transactions).

You may want to include this step if you have been doing so already but haven’t yet recorded them separately because some businesses prefer not having too many numbers floating around while they’re working on their businesses instead.”

Also read: Better Business Budget Management: How to Stick to a Budget

6. Keep an eye on your competitors

While it is great to set goals and monitor your income and expenditure, it is also important that you keep an eye on your competition.

When you closely observe them and make certain comparisons, you are able to decide how well your business is performing in terms of growth.

7. Measure marketing effectiveness

The most important step to tracking your business growth is measuring the results of your marketing efforts.

This will help you understand how effective each method is at generating leads and customers, which can be used in future campaigns to make sure that they’re not wasting money on ineffective tactics.

Use tools like Google Analytics or HubSpot Inbound that provide more detailed metrics about what people do after clicking on an ad or visiting a website, so you know exactly where they came from (and why).

You may also want to look at other sources such as social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn; these details are often hidden under their own privacy settings but still give valuable insight into who else has seen your content or advertisements before them (and whether they were interested enough in something else unrelated).

8. Track employee productivity

Track employees’ productivity and efficiency. To make sure that your employees are working on their tasks, you should track their work hours, performance, and attendance.

You can also use different tools to keep an eye on the progress of your team members such as Google Keep or Evernote.

These apps allow you to jot down notes, organize tasks and share them with other people within the organization. If necessary, send notifications when there is something new in the queue or if someone is late for work.

This will help you keep track of what needs attention throughout each day so that nothing falls through the cracks!

Track employee skill set growth over time based on feedback from managers/supervisors/coaches etc., as well as data collected from surveys sent out periodically during training sessions (if required).

9. Develop a plan

A plan is a set of actions to achieve a goal. The plan should be realistic, achievable, and flexible. It should also be documented so that it can be used by the business owner in future years.

A good plan will include:

Who will do what? This is where you identify who is responsible for each task or project you’re working on. You might write down “I will design our website” instead of just saying “I’ll do it”.

By making this distinction, you’re making sure that everyone knows their role in the team and what they need to accomplish before they start work on anything else related to their project (e.g., creating content).

Conclusion

It may seem like a lot of work, but tracking your business growth is the only way to make sure that everything is going according to plan. You need to know what’s working and what isn’t, so you can adapt accordingly.