Collecting and analyzing more data than you think you need can help you build a stronger retail wine business.
Measure, don’t guess. Sound pretty obvious, no? If you’re doing any sort of construction work you don’t guess how long the board you need is going to be. Even for rough carpentry, “about 18 inches” isn’t going to cut it. So why would you guess about how your business is performing? [level-members]
In a small share, you would be correct in thinking that you have a limited amount of data to work with. That doesn’t mean you should ignore it just because your sample size is small. Here’s a great example that covers employee training, shop staffing decisions, and more.
You probably have a really good sense of how much you sell each month. But you should be tracking sales on a daily and even hourly basis. That information, which at first glance might seem like overkill can help you decide whether you need to increase staff on duty for particular shifts.
“Who doesn’t know that?!” you might shout. And surely you have an internal sense of your staffing needs if you’ve been in business for a while.
The goal, though, is to stay in business, and to build a business that is systems-based. Meaning, if you aren’t around, or if you wish to sell the business, having systems in place that guide the decisions you make by the seat of your pants can be the difference between your business surviving a crisis and failing, or between you selling for top dollar.
Need more proof? How about shift by shift sales? Yes, of course you know that Saturday afternoon is going to be busier than Tuesday morning. But what about the differences from one Saturday to the next? Capturing and examining this data is a great way to figure out if you have a problem employee – one that either needs to be replaced or retrained?
So before you think you have all the answers, begin gathering more data. You’ll be surprised what you find. [/level-members]