Benchmarking is the process of evaluating or checking (something) by comparison with a standard. As a business owner there are many items that you could consider benchmarking but if you know and can focus on the key performance areas that are important to your business there will be a higher return for your efforts. If you know you are outperforming your competitors marketing then choose another area, one that might be more difficult for you but that would provide a higher return for your efforts.
A great place to begin might be to consider having your SBDC business advisor assist you with completing a Profit Cents report that takes your profit and loss statement and compares it to your industry. This report would allow you to choose key areas of your profit and losses as opportunities to benchmark.
Allyson L. Young, SPHR, HR & Brand Director of Baldrige Award recipient K&N Management, whose vision is “to become world famous by delighting one guest at a time.” Her top-three tips on benchmarking:
- Benchmarking is critical to maintaining a competitive edge. Studying best practices keeps you ahead of the game.
- Effective benchmarking creates beneficial partnerships and networking opportunities.
- Internally benchmarking best practices is as effective as externally benchmarking in driving continuous improvement.
Another consideration is doing some simple benchmarking. Benchmarking does not have to be a comprehensive analysis but might just be taking a few minutes to do a key word search for your business and see if your showing up in the search engines. There are endless ways you can benchmark your business some formal and other just simple searches. Contact your SBDC business advisor today to get started.
Written by Bryan Zak, Assistant State Director