Page 211 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

Visitors or leads per day: How many people are stopping by to take a
look or signing up for more information?

Average order price: How much are people spending when they order?
Sales conversion rate: What percentage of visitors or leads become
customers?
Net promoter score: What percentage of customers would refer your
business to someone else?

Some businesses choose more specific metrics. Brandy Agerbeck, the graphic
facilitator we met in Chapter 7, earns her living through corporate and non-profit
bookings. Every year she needs a certain amount of bookings, so she keeps a set
of index cards to track this number. When the index cards fill up, she knows
she’s good for a while and can focus on other things.
Once or twice a month it’s good to take a deeper look at the business and
record some metrics that should be improving over time. The kinds of things
you’ll probably be interested in are more detailed sales figures, site traffic and
social media, and the growth of the business. You can get a free spreadsheet to
help with this process in the online resources for this book at 100startup.com.

Built to Sell: Going Really Long

John Warrillow built and sold four companies before “retiring” to write, speak,
and invest. After learning his lessons through those four experiences, he now
advocates a specific model for owners of small companies who wish to sell their
business one day. Most of John’s recommendations relate to the need to create an
actual company or organization that can thrive outside the business owners’
specific skills.

In other words, the built-to-sell model is different from the model we’ve
looked at in this book. Many of our case studies involve people who went into
business for themselves because it was fun, not because they wanted to build
something and then cash out. However, John’s recommendations are solid for
owners who want to pass a business on, and some of them can be adapted to
improve a business even if you want to stick around. You can see how the two
models compare in the table below.

BUILT TO SELL—$100 STARTUP COMPARISON