Elevate Your Business with Actionable KPI Strategies

Ever wondered how to elevate your business performance using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? In this episode of the Veronica Edwards Show, we promise you will uncover the secrets to setting and measuring KPIs effectively across various business areas, from finance and HR to marketing and sales. Joined by Ms. Sullivan, COO of Cassie Electric, we'll reveal the essential role of an operational handbook in establishing these crucial metrics. From punctuality and uniform compliance to achieving strategic goals, you'll gain insight into how KPIs can transform everyday operations and drive success.

Our conversation takes a practical turn as we discuss real-world examples from Cassie Electric, showing you how to develop KPIs that hold both employees and management accountable. Learn about the challenges of enforcing uniform standards and discover best practices for creating simple, aligned, and impactful KPIs. We also delve into the importance of quarterly reviews and investing in employees' growth to enhance retention and overall company success. Plus, don't miss our special segment on small business operations in the electrical services sector, emphasizing the significance of a strong online presence. Join us for an episode packed with actionable insights and expert advice!

Links: https://cassyelectric.com/
FB & Twitter: Cassy Electric
IG: CassyElectric 

This program is brought to you by:
Balanced Virtually

Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.

Chapters

• 0:38 Financial Conversations
• 9:02 Developing Key Performance Indicators & Goals
• 20:55 Electrical Services Marketing Discussion

Transcript

Veronica : 0:38

Welcome to the Veronica Edwards show where we have fun financial conversations that everyone listening can apply to their personal and professional life. I'm your host, veronica Edwards, always excited to be back here on bizradious Once this show airs in July. I am hoping that we've reached 4,000 downloads because we're only about 150 downloads away. So I just want to thank the V Team for always listening and downloading the podcast at veronicaedwardsbuzzsproutcom, and today's show is one of our quarterly segments Small Biz Hot Topics with co-host and friend to the show, coo of Cassie Electric, the only minority 100% female-owned electrical business in the state of South Carolina. Ms Sullivan, how are you today?

Ebony: 1:30

Good morning. Good morning, I'm doing great. How are you guys?

Veronica : 1:34

Girl, you know, we just got back from Hotlanta.

Ebony: 1:37

Yeah.

Veronica : 1:38

Yes, we just spent the weekend celebrating friends and family and birthdays, but I'm definitely feeling every part of 42.

Ebony: 1:48

Oh girl, as I sip on my detox tea.

Veronica : 1:50

Yes, so we are recording this. Now it's June, this is going to air in July and, for whatever reason, I've been getting a lot of people talking about dashboards and different metrics and now that it's midway in the year, ebony, I thought it would be good that we talk about key performance indicators, kpis, and digging into what are KPIs, the different type of KPIs that can be beneficial to small business owners and, ebony, with you having Minority Business of the Year well, isn't even Minority Business the Business of the Year for the Greenville Chamber? I know that you are digging more and more every year to the different layers of your business and I'm assuming you use KPIs also.

Ebony: 2:37

Yes, we do actually. So let's start with a definition of KPIs. Kpis stands for key performance indicators, a qualifiable measure of performance over time for a specific objective. Kpis provide targets for teams to shoot for milestones, to gauge progress and insight that helps people across the organization make better decisions, from finance and HR to marketing and sales. Key performance indicators help every area of the business move forward at the strategic level and I think that is the key word, that is, at the strategic level. So you can't get too caught up in the weeds. You start working on KPIs.

Veronica : 3:24

Yep, and I'm glad that you said that it is based for a specific objective or a goal. I think sometimes people kind of use those terms interchangeably KPIs, those terms interchangeably KPIs. Goals, strategic, they're similar, but you have to have your objectives and goals first, I feel like, in order to then determine what your KPIs are going to be.

Ebony: 3:47

And you know we use our handbook for how to develop KPIs, so the handbook is an essential part of your business operations, right? This is kind of the lay of the land, the law, and by going through your handbook and picking out key things that are very important to you as it relates to measuring success for your employees, it is a good foundational place to start building blocks off of the KPIs.

Veronica : 4:17

Ooh, so you're talking about just your regular HR operational handbook for your business?

Ebony: 4:22

Correct, Because in that handbook you should have all of the things, so your KPIs. You're talking strategic measures, we're talking operational measures and we're talking functional measures. So for our team, for an example, one of their measurements in their KPIs is are they coming to work on time, Are they in uniform? And all of these things are in the handbook. So it's not like we have this goal for them to come to work on time and be in uniform and that's just a verbal thing that we expect from them. It is also written in the handbook that we give to you upon onboarding for hiring, and so once we review that handbook, we're also measuring whether or not you are adhering to those operational rules.

Veronica : 5:10

And I want to rewind it all the way back for those listening and they have a small business. Do you have a handbook?

Ebony: 5:16

We have a handbook. Yes, we need one.

Veronica : 5:20

So, ebony, how would people go about getting a handbook if they're like my sales are less than a hundred thousand annually. I'm a solopreneur. I might have some contractors. Maybe I don't need a handbook. But what would you say to those that are listening and they have that perspective?

Ebony: 5:37

Yes, you do need a handbook. It's a you say to those that are listening and they have that perspective. Yes, you do need a handbook. It's a great tool for you to go through periodically and just remind yourself who you are. In this handbook you have your mission, your vision, your day-to-day operations of your business, what's expected from you and what's expected from the people that work for your company, your brand.

Ebony: 5:57

So, yes, if they are 1099 subcontractors, you want them waving your flag out on the job site or working in someone's business. You want them to understand what the expectations are of your business and your brand, and the best way to do that is through a handbook. Now, there's a lot of free tools out there, so find a free tool that will help you build a handbook. It doesn't have to be super complex. A lot of them come with a template already designed where they'll populate your city or states for you and what are hiring and firing rules of your state. But a big picture is you just want something in writing that says this is who we are and this is how we operate.

Veronica : 6:40

And you kind of hit on it a little bit, ebony, with the different types of KPIs, like you mentioned strategic, operational and functional. And when we talk about strategic, that's big picture. So your bigger companies, that's usually like your big time executives. They might pick one or two big goals and they're always, of course, thinking about return on investment and revenue and some more of those like financial measures. But strategy can also be.

Veronica : 7:07

We want to be in these particular areas, you know like, or we want to grow to this in this year. We want to be this size and operational. You know, this year we want to be this size and operational. That's focusing more, like you had mentioned, the organizational processes and efficiencies. And functional is kind of internal. I like how you mentioned hey, are we showing up on time? Are we wearing what we're supposed to be wearing? If you work in the sales department, are you hitting your sales goals? If you're in finance, are there specific goals that your department has? So it's important regardless if it's just you're a solopreneur and you're relying on subcontractors, because you're definitely relying on somebody. Not many businesses are running 100% on their own. But to your point, ebony, I love the piece of accountability. What would you say Ebony, from your experience with Cassie Electric, once you implemented the handbook, implemented the KPIs, what difference did you see in the morale of the staff for revenue, all of the things?

Ebony: 8:21

books. This was early on in our strategic growth process and we lost a lot of people. The biggest part of KPIs is what you said is accountability. When you start holding people accountable to what's written down, some people get squirmy, and so what you'll find is that when you start formalizing the processes that you have created so let me, let me stress that when you start formalizing the processes that you've created, you're going to find that there are some people who just don't like that Right, like you winging it, because they can never hold you accountable and you can never hold them accountable.

Ebony: 9:03

But when we first did this, we went as far as to even go to have a uniform program, because we had folks that were showing up to work with their pants falling down and their shirts was wrinkled and holey. And you know we're in a service provider business, where we're people's homes, and so that was just unacceptable. And so we went as far as to even start a uniform program to try and help offset the costs for someone who may be struggling to acquire new jeans or to get whatever the case may be. And we quickly found that even with that new uniform program, we still had guys that were not in uniform, and so our KPIs gave us a chance to go through the processes that we talked about. Okay, we're going to have a verbal, we're going to have a written, and then we're going to terminate you right. And so those things were clearly spelt out so that when the time came for us to hold you accountable to the KPIs that you agreed to that, I agreed to that.

Ebony: 9:57

When it was time to let people go, we had a lot of credibility to stand on. So we did lose a lot of folks who were not really pleased with having a formalized process. Baby, what I tell you, ebony has to be the cleanup woman sometimes. Yes, ma'am, and it's not fun, but it is necessary.

Veronica : 10:16

Yes, because when you want to scale up, when you want to take your business at the next level, when you don't want it to be a hobby anymore and you really want to make it profitable, you're absolutely right, ebony. Kpis are all about holding yourself and your team accountable and anybody listening, even if you don't have a business. That's why it's so important, even in your personal life, where you hear people saying I have a to-do list, I have a vision board, I'm coming back to those items. You should always have goals at the beginning of every year, and that continues to change, just to push yourself. It's too easy to just kind of like you said, kind of just go with the flow, if you allow that, but it's good to push yourself. So now that we understand what these key performance indicators are, ebony, how do we develop them? If someone says, okay, I see the need for it, we're going to work on this handbook. Now we need to figure out how do we develop KPIs. What are some best practices for those listening?

Ebony: 11:22

for them to reach those business goals. So again, I would never overcomplicate anything until you have a lot to really measure. We started with a simple Excel sheet and we took our strategic goals that we said for the company that we were going to do so. For an example, if we wanted to earn a million dollars in revenue, I looked at each player on the bench and measured what they were going to do to help us to get to that number. So that million dollars isn't just my responsibility as the COO, right, like everybody, plays a part in that. So we figured out what that percentage of their part would be. That is based off of just performance. So, if you are a service technician, we had daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals and we moved those down into those KPIs because we met with our people quarterly to talk about how are we moving the needle towards those goals. So the KPI was on an Excel spreadsheet. We have four different categories. One of the categories was goals how are we measuring our goal? The other was what I told you operational handbook. How are we measuring within the handbook rules? Are we on time? Are we dressed right?

Ebony: 12:39

Then we talked about safety, because safety is important to us. Have we had any safety violations? Are there any things that we needed to improve upon? And then our last one was time management. We're a really big company on professional development. I really love to invest in our team and making sure that they have the skill sets that they need and the resources available to them, and so one of the others was for future goals for professional development. Are you doing something that is moving the needle towards you being better, greater than you are in your current role? So we identify what those things could be. Are you going to school? Are you taking a class? Are you doing online study? And we identify what those things were and we measured the success of those and we met quarterly to discuss how we're performing Wow.

Veronica : 13:39

And if I was an employee for Cassie Electric, I would say wow. That means a lot to me that you're wanting me to work on individual goals. When I worked for businesses, that always was something that stood out to me was like, ok, I get that, we have the business goals and, yes, we're here to make the business money, so we can make money, but it is nice for that. Professional individual items Like if I wanted to be a notary, if I wanted to take continuing education in IT, I can take that with me for the rest of my life. So that's great that, as a small business owner, you're able to do that. And I hope those that are listening that they know like it's not just about just working your people to death and you want them just to focus 100 percent on your business. It's also helping build better, healthy, positive, more well-rounded employees and people.

Ebony: 14:27

And if you don't even get it from that perspective because you're detached from humans? Yes, so driven.

Ebony: 14:35

Just think about it in a different light as well. As you know, at the end of the day, if the people that you have working for you, the smarter they are, the smarter you are right. People that you have working for you, the smarter they are, the smarter you are right. And if you are investing into them, it's all a retention tool, right. You keep them around because they know that. You know what these people believe in me enough that they want to see me show up and be better, and so, as a retention tool, it has really helped us to keep the key people around, who understand that, who believe in that, to stay on the team a lot longer because they see the investment.

Veronica : 15:12

Absolutely. You hit on the fact of you know talking with people who are going to be using the KPIs. You know defining how it will be used if it's weekly, monthly, if it's going to be used towards incentives like bonuses and salary. You know tying them to strategic goals you mentioned we have to have this handbook, we have to have these goals to then tie those into the KPIs. Now, one term I've heard quite a bit whenever you're defining a goal or KPI is making sure that you're using the SMART formula. So it needs to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound. You know you can't say, oh, we want to grow, like you said, we're going to say we're at 3 million, we want to go to 5 million, we want to do that in a quarter. It's like, well, is that realistic? You know, also, do we want to do that in three years? Maybe not? And you know, just making sure they're clear cut. I, like you said, don't overcomplicate it. You know, just say what it is, stick to it, make sure everybody understands that this is what we need to do to move the needle for the right direction. So I love all of that in developing KPIs and before we go, I just wanted to list a few that I'm aware of of KPIs and, ebony, please add any from your industry being kind of in project-based construction service.

Veronica : 16:35

Of course, when it comes to the financials, we're always going to ask about revenue and your gross profit margin and things as a percentage of sales. So if your biggest expense item is people salaries, well, I'm going to want to see, well, what is my salary's expense as a percentage of the total sales, because I know that, no matter how much I sell, 50% of it is just going to people. That's an important indicator for a lot of folks For human resources. Ebony, you mentioned absenteeism, you know, tardiness, things of that sort, employee turnover, making sure that employees are engaged. I cannot emphasize that. That's in relationships, that's in everything making sure the ones that you're working with and the ones that you're serving are engaged. Is there any other ones, Ebony, that you can think of that jump out to you? That's important, for doesn't matter the genre of the industry, but that you just have found over the years is important for small business owners to look at.

Ebony: 17:40

Again, just not overcomplicating it. Those were really good ones to start. You know, the deeper and the more intuitive you become with your business, you'll start having more robust KPIs, but for startups, after you type them up and that you actually use them to measure success for your team and your business. So you don't want to make it too much where it becomes a burden rather than just another thing to do to measure success.

Veronica : 18:22

Wonderful. Anything else that you would like to add, ebony, maybe some of your wins, or? I think you've mentioned some great feedback about when you implement this don't get discouraged if you get resistance because, again, a lot of people don't like to be held accountable and, I hate to say it, I love saying, well, then they can start their own business or they could go somewhere else, but you have to have accountability in all things, especially if you're trying to score different goals.

Veronica : 18:52

It just has to be there, you know. That's the whole point of being in business. Anything else you like to add, ms Sullivan?

Ebony: 18:59

Just you know, just remember.

Ebony: 19:00

It's a mindset shift to start holding people accountable and it is hard.

Ebony: 19:05

You know it is going to be difficult when you have to sit across from Frank, who's been working with you for the last 20 years, and 20 years ago your business was one way and now it's different.

Ebony: 19:16

And so now you have to hold Frank accountable to the new version of who your business is, and that might be a little bit uncomfortable, but just remember that you did this work for a reason. You did the work because you want to scale and grow your business, and this is just one cornerstone or pillar in doing that and therefore you want people on the team that's helping you move the boat in the direction that you want to go in. So if you've got resistance from folks, it may be time to just get some people off the boat in the direction that you want to go in. So if you've got resistance from folks, it may be time to just get some people off the boat, and KPIs can help you to do that in a very palatable way, because you're holding them accountable to what you hired them to do and it eliminates all of the feelings.

Veronica : 20:00

That part you're absolutely right. When you mentioned the handbook I think about. You know, working at the church school that my son used to go to, because you're dealing with the church people. But it's also business and I would always say when parents in the payday tuition, this isn't Veronica's rules, this is what's in the handbook that was voted by the school board, that you guys all agreed to, you know, when you signed your kids up. So I love that perspective, ebony, of just reiterating that these aren't my rules, these are the company rules, and this was all in place when you interviewed.

Veronica : 20:35

If it wasn't, we've talked about it over the years and, like all things, things are going to change. Like every season, there might be different folks, there might be different policies, you might add a new revenue stream or a new business. So you definitely want people that are willing to grow with you and willing to be flexible. So, ebony, just like that, we're already to the end of the show. Thank you again for coming on. I know I sprung this on you kind of last minute. I was like oh, we got some extra weeks in the summer, let's do another small biz chat, and I always appreciate your perspective, if you can, before we go just again in North Carolina. We are excuse me, we are providers who enjoy working with general contractors homeowners, realtors, anyone who is in need of electrical services and maintenance.

Ebony: 21:37

You can find us on Facebook, instagram and our website is CassieElectriccom.

Veronica : 21:43

Yay, yay, yay. Wonderful. Well again, I just want to thank the V Team, all the listeners, for tuning into bizradious for the Veronica Everett Show and all the other shows on the platform, and if you missed the live airing, you can always listen to all of my prior shows on VeronicaEverettbuzzsproutcom.