Business coach Stuart Preston offers common sense metrics for measuring success.

In addition to my marketing consulting practice, I teach marketing and advertising to graduate students at a local university. My mantra to clients and students is the same: write down goals and make sure they are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-specific.

Usually our goals emerge from a great deal of research and analysis, not to mention soul-searching and gutty conversations with managers. But for small businesses, there are often some very basic, easy to recognize, answers to the question: “How’s business?”

In a recent blog post, Stuart Preston asks that question and came out with some common sense metrics for the small businesses.

“How’s business?”  It can be a tough question to answer because there are so many elements, some of which can be good and some not so good at the same time.  Sales might be up, but an employee is having problems.  Profits may be climbing, but a supplier is really dropping the ball on us.  So, while this question might be hard to answer when asked directly, I bet in your own mind, you are constantly answering the question based on one or two key observations of your business, or ‘metrics.’

Here are some of Stuart’s small business yardsticks:

• Cars in the parking lot
• Phones ringing
• Deliveries
• Butts in seats
• Presses running
• Invoices printed
• Email inquiries
• Website visits

As a coach, what are your common sense metrics? Are you satisfied with what they are telling you about your coaching practice?

Read Stuart Preston’s blog here.