Melissa Willis challenged Ascension Parish small business leaders to look beyond gut feelings and start using measurable data to guide their decisions during the Ascension Parish Chamber of Commerce’s August Small Business Network Event. Willis, a business coach and consultant with more than 12 ye ars of experience, shared lessons from a career that has taken her around the world and through a variety of industries, including marketing, restaurants, acting and modeling. Her presentation focused on key performance indicators, or KPIs, and how small businesses can use them to create accountability, improve profitability and make better decisions. “Gut feelings are great,” Willis told the group, noting that instincts can be valuable but cannot be measured or proven. KPIs, she said, give business owners concrete information they can use to determine whether they are moving toward their goals. Willis cautioned business owners against trying to track too many numbers at once. Instead, she recommended choosing one to three goals and identifying two or three KPIs tied directly to each goal. Each KPI should have a clear definition, a baseline, an assigned owner and a regular review schedule. The key, she said, is consistency. Businesses should track their numbers weekly, monthly or quarterly, depending on the goal, and maintain the same measurements long enough to identify meaningful trends. Changing KPIs every few weeks can create confusion and make it difficult to determine what is actually working. Willis offered examples for different types of businesses. Retailers might monitor sales per square foot, inventory turnover, average transaction value and conversion rates. Service businesses could track utilization, profit margins, client retention and the movement of leads into booked work. Manufacturers can monitor measures such as equipment efficiency, quality and on-time delivery. Throughout the presentation, Willis also emphasized the connection between KPIs and leadership. Clear numbers can help employees understand exactly what is expected of them and make performance evaluations more objective. Her message ultimately came down to simplicity: Businesses do not need thousands of numbers. They need the right few numbers, tracked consistently, to identify bottlenecks and make timely adjustments. “Revenue feeds the ego, but profit feeds the family,” Willis said, encouraging business owners to focus not only on sales but on the profitability and sustainability of their operations. ...read more read less