June2023(Edition–6) CHAMBERCONNECT

Inside this issue:

Feature Article How Do You Measure Success?

From the Desk of Dan DeBone: Economic Development Through Diversity and Inclusion

Chamber Champion of the Month: Westmoreland County Community College

Non-Profit of the Month: FAVOR Western Pennsylvania

The Chamber Champion Belt

Financial Wellness & News: How to Choose the Right Insurer for Your Benefit Plans

Upcoming Events

Chamber Rewind: See a May event recap

Member Milestones

Welcome New Members

News & Events from Our Members Ads, events, and more

Whether you’re a business owner, a leader, or an individual contributor, how do you know you’re successful in your endeavors? Not everyone has the same goals personally or professionally, so you can’t just copy someone’s homework here. How do you measure success for you?

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ANNOUCEMENT!

You spoke and we listened!

Our new website and member portal will be launched in mid-June! Watch for emails and instructions on how to set up your member account which will allow you to register for events, post jobs, review resumes, and more!

Whether you’re a business owner, a leader, or an individual contributor, how do you know you’re successful in your endeavors? Not everyone has the same goals personally or professionally, so you can’t just copy someone’s homework here. How do you measure success for you?

Cold Hard Facts

We all love warm and fuzzy feedback about our work. But just because someone shared an anecdotal story about how their mom and her best friends loved your product or service, you can’t declare victory.

Client stories and testimonials are great for attracting customers and can help provide some context, but you need evidence that you can track objectively. And the less fuzz the better.

To do that, you need concrete metrics to determine how your entire client base reacts to your company. The more objective the metric, the easier you can use it to measure success. But first you have to define which numbers or scores to track.

The Most Important Thing(s)

Regardless of what you choose to measure, identify and track the numbers that are the most important to achieving your longterm goals. Then, check your goals against your company’s mission.

Where do you have the biggest gap between aspiration and reality? What might make the biggest positive impact and move the needle for the business? These are the most important things to track for the business.

You might already know which numbers give you the best indicators of business health. If you’re struggling to identify numbers or think you may have the wrong ones, consider some of the metrics listed below.

Do Dollars Make Sense?

More and more we’re seeing that the bottom line isn’t always the only (or best) indicator of success. Don’t misunderstand us: there’s nothing wrong with wanting to focus on a healthy bottom line. It’s vital for survival.

Increasing revenue and profit margins very often are the greatest indicators of success for a business, especially during the start-up and growth phases. During these times, these numbers most likely WILL be the owner’s primary focus.

That said, some company leaders know they cannot grow their revenue with the current resources.

Instead, they’d prefer to focus on reducing expenses to increase profit margins, which can mean reviewing their processes and current workforce skillsets.

Or they may have other priorities that will ultimately grow their business (think expenditures for a new location or expansion into a new niche market).

Increasing Capacity

When a company provides valuable products or services, demand for them will nearly always follow. This can happen at the individual contributor level when someone does such spectacular work everyone clamors to work with them.

Eventually, the person or the organization hits a capacity issue. They can’t work any harder and have run out of ways to improve processes to work smarter. It’s time to rethink how things are currently operating to increase capacity.

Does someone need to automate things (looking at you, current golden child Chat GPT), upskill with some professional development to be more effective, or add more people to help out?

From this perspective, increasing employee headcount can be a measure of success when looking for the right people to most efficiently increase capacity.

Improving Team Culture

Many companies report feeling in a funk recently. People latch onto buzzwords like “quiet quitting” or “quiet firing” to externalize and explain their blah. Both experiences trample on employee morale and create an unhealthy environment to work in, creating a perpetual cycle of blah (yes, that’s the technical term).

Instead, forward-thinking leaders look inward to figure out the root cause of the funk and address it head-on. Anyone who follows serial entrepreneur Gary Vee knows how important a company team culture is to him.

How does Gary continually provide an outstanding environment for his team and garners outstanding results? He *gasp* asks people what they want (because they measure success differently, too).

Gary and smart leaders like him address problems that prevent people from enjoying their working experience. For example, maybe there’s a mismatch in core values to lived experience. A leader works to fix this and bring daily activities into alignment with core values.

Share Your Success!

However you measure success, the Chamber wants to celebrate your wins with you! Whether it’s years in business, a milestone number of customers served, or more smiles at team meetings, let us know! Contact us at info@westmorelandchamber.com or use our online form to share your story.

We love being the conduit for spreading good news. Sharing your success story just may provide the inspiration for another member to make changes to better their business as well. It all starts tracking the right things to measure success for you.