Numbers in isolation are fairly meaningless.  But, if you start to track and understand the important numbers in your business, you can quickly increase sales and profits.

Here are five ways to track numbers which benefit you:

1. Know how far you are from reaching your goals

Research proves that having goals is more likely to result in achieving them.  But, to achieve a goal, you must be able to measure your progress.  You must know revenues, and even profit, every day.

2. Manage key underlying issues

There are a handful of smaller activities that affect larger issues.  For example, for sales -

- number of outbound sales calls

- number of enquiries (phone, walk-in, website)

- number of proposals/quotes issued

- number of proposals closed or accepted

- average price per sale

If sales slow and you track each of these, you can instantly know what to fix.

3. Discover problems before it's too late

It's not enough to know it was a bad month.  Track the above everyday, and it could be as simple as not enough quotes sent in week one, so make sure they go out on time.

4. Quantify success and failure

The numbers tell you if the business is performing well.  A quick glance lets you know if everything is on track.

5. Offer your team more constructive feedback

Your team also knows what's important for the future of the business, like customer complaints, refunds, sales closed, etc.

Keep in mind: don't just look at your numbers to find problems.  Use them to pinpoint what's working well in your business and do more of that.