My Simple 2008 Business Goal

Since the holidays, it’s been difficult getting back in the groove of blogging.

I read Leo's post called 7 Essential Tips to Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever at Zen Habits. His first tip is about having one simple goal. I agree with him that one goal refines your focus so hitting the bulls eye of your goal becomes easier.

With this idea in mind, I examined my monthly roll up statistics. Tracking specific areas of my Martial Arts business enables me to target areas for improvement.

Main Categories of My Statistics

• Inquiries (how many people contacted me)
  
• Introductory Lessons (how many people tried the program)
  
• Enrollments (how many people joined)
  
• Total Students (total number of members)
  
• Attrition Rate (percentage of cancellations)
  
• Student Value (the amount of revenues each student creates)
  

I took these statistics and compared them to my industries benchmarks. This year, my inquiries to enrollments rate went from 15% to 25% meaning that I improved in my sales presentation. The interesting part is that I improved despite the fact that tuition rates increased 20% since prior year. Lesson Learned: pricing is elastic and people are willing to pay more for better service.

Okay, on to my simple 2008 business goal, I realized that the number of inquiries limits my schools growth. If your average attrition rate is 5% (I was below 5% for the year), a school of 100 students loses 5 students per month. At a 25% inquiry to enrollment rate, I need to find 20 inquiries per month to sign up 5 new students. If I accomplish this goal consistently over the next few months, my school will grow to 100 students.

There you have it.

My Simple 2008 Business Goal = generate 20 new inquiries per month

If my attrition rate is better than 5%, I will reach my goal quicker.