You have a strong but steady virtual assistant practice with a stable client base on retainer. Why bother keeping statistics for your business? Because you attract what you focus on and keeping metrics allows you to set and see yourself move toward your business goals. Since I’ve started tracking statistics for my business, I have nearly doubled my monthly business income (of course, a lot of that is also marketing and taking on new clients, but without my magic spreadsheet, I wouldn’t have known how much room I actually had in my practice.
Until recently, I was a dyed in the wool member of the non-spreadsheet brigade. I had a solid virtual assistance practice filled with ideal clients who had me on retainer. Yes, I did lose a few solid clients due to the economy, but my practice was generally humming along. One day though, I noticed that I just wasn’t bringing in as much as I used to. I decided to track a few key metrics in my practice – hours committed, hours billed, affiliate income and billed income. Just for kicks, I also added in lines for Send Out Cards, size of my lists, twitter followers and facebook followers.
That is when the magic started to happen. By taking a snapshot of my business and putting it all down in black and white, I could make some strategic decisions about how to grow. I learned that I had a few clients who had room in their budgets for more virtual assistant hours, so I added new services. I also discovered that I had room for a few more clients — so I added them. As a result, my business income has nearly doubled in the past few months. I like to see the numbers on the spreadsheet going up each month and it is a basic law that empty spaces get filled — by making spaces on my sheet for what I wanted, I was also making room in my business and in my life.
So, to get started, all you need is a simple spreadsheet (or just a piece of paper will work too). In the first column put the things you would like to track (# of clients, hours billed, etc.), then put your baseline numbers in the next column. Each month, add a column with the new information for that month. Here are some things you can track:
* Number of Clients
* Retainer Hours (or committed hours per client)
* Hours actually billed
* Affiliate income (I include Send Out Cards in This)
* Hours subcontracted (if you have an assistant VA)
* Mailing list size
* Twitter followers
* Facebook followers
Add whatever else makes sense for your and your business. Add new columns each month, track your results and watch your business. grow.
