Start at the End: How Companies Can Grow Bigger and Faster by Reversing Their Business Plan

Chapter 4

Achieving Your Financial Metric Goals

Once you’ve dissected your long-term vision into smaller visions you will achieve in the next month, quarter, and year, you will gain a much clearer understanding of the actions you must take to build your business.

However, to ensure you make steady progress toward your visions, there is another essential ingredient: having a scorecard. That is, you must have a means of measuring your progress and success. If you do not, how will you ensure you are meeting your smaller visions and staying on track to achieve your long-term vision?

The good news is that you’ve already started to create your scorecard. I’m referring to the financial metrics you identified that you’d like to achieve. For instance, in my organic sunscreen company, these financial metrics included generating $20 million in revenues within 5 years and reaching $1 million in the next year.

In creating your scorecard, you will break out these financial metric goals even further. How? By identifying the specific actions and results you and your company need to ensure you make steady and continual progress toward your goals.

Measuring Success

The core strategy to improve your business and achieve your periodic and long-term financial metrics is to use key performance indicators (KPIs).

As the name indicates, KPIs are the metrics that judge your business’s performance based on the success you would like to achieve. They serve as your scorecard.

Examples of KPIs you might want ...