DesignLuv

Data Tracking and Performance

By Jon Bergan (@jonbergan) in Workflow » Management

For many new freelancers and even many existing design firms, it seems to be the norm to simply plod along designing logos, websites and other works without spending all that much time focusing on their actual business. To me, this is ridiculous. After all, there is a huge difference between simply designing logos and getting paid for it to running a successful business and one of the biggest differences is actually taking notice of what you’re doing and how well you’re performing.

The best way to keep track such information is to conduct some data tracking. This essentially involves the tracking of numbers (whether it be hits to your website or hours spent on a project) to determine how well both you and your business are performing. This practice can often be neglected by many business owners due to the large amount of time that must be invested into it or simply due to the change of workflow for most designers. It is important to note though that this simple task can play a huge role in your business by determining key areas that need improvement.

In my opinion, it is important that every designer who is trying to make a living out of the design industry (whether by freelance or by running their own established design firm) should track the following data variables on a regular basis. This list is not exhaustive so be creative when you piece your list of variables together, however you should also remember that the longer the list, the longer it will take to actually record and review this data.

Variable(s): Quoted Hours, Actual Hours
Relates To: Project Management
How Often: Per Project/Job or Weekly
Reason: This is probably the most important piece of data to track. If you don’t track anything else, I would strongly recommend you track this. Tracking your quoted/actual hours allows you to determine whether you’ve quoted too little/too high and why. It also will ensure you quote more accurately in the future. The other added benefit is that you can actually work out how much you’re charging per hour. For example, say you charge $100/hour but you’re constantly underquoting yourself, you’ll quickly see that your hours are actually only worth about $80/hour or less!

Variable(s): Quote Requests Received, Contact Form Submissions Received
Relates To: Sales
How Often: Monthly
Reason: Most websites for freelance designers or design firms will provide their users with the ability to submit a quote request or a contact form. It is important to track these as it determines how well your website is performing as a marketing tool for your business. If you’re not getting enough quote requests coming through on your website, perhaps you need to look into your online marketing efforts such as SEO, external link building, blogging and whatever else you’re into.

Variable(s): Total Unique Hits, Newsletter Subscriptions Received, RSS Subscribers
Relates To: Website Statistics / Online Marketing
How Often: Weekly
Reason: With each month that passes, you should hopefully be attracting more users to your website and ultimately more users who subscribe to your e-newsletter or RSS feeds. Tracking such information allows you to determine how many potential/existing clients are hearing about your business on a regular basis. Building your e-newsletter or RSS subscriber count is one way of ensuring that your business name is gaining maximum exposure at little cost. I would suggest that you set some goals for these variables. Aim to increase the amount of subscribers by 10 every week and then build from there. Having small goals relating to these variables will help your business grow.

Variable(s): New Potential Customers, New Customers, Returning Customers, Market Source (How did you hear about us?)
Relates To: Sales/Marketing
How Often: Weekly
Reason: Another important set of variables to track are those relating to your customer base. A successful business will have a lot of returning customers. If you do not have a lot of clients coming back to you for repeat-business, you need to stop and work out why. If you’re providing a high quality product with brilliant customer service and people are confident that they’re receiving value from your business, then there should be no reason that clients wouldn’t come back to you for more work.

Variable(s): Incoming Sales Calls/Emails, Incoming Support Calls/Emails, Incoming Complaint Calls/Emails
Relates To: Customer Service
How Often: Weekly
Reason: Finally, you must track variables relating to customer service. These are utterly important. You need to be able to see if you’re receiving a lot of complaints or too little sales enquiries. If you’re receiving a lot of support requests, you need to be able to quickly determine why. These are all crucial variables to track to ensure your business is providing the service it promises.

As you can see, tracking such variables not only gives you a clear indication of how you’re performing as a designer and as a business owner, but it also provides you with important statistical information relating to your clients, your market, your quoting system and more thus improving your pricing structure and the way you quote whilst allowing you to get a much better understanding of your potential and existing clients.

So, what data do you track? Have I missed anything that you think is an important variable to track? If you’re not currently tracking such data, why not?

Please leave a comment and let me know!

By Jon Bergan

Jon is a passionate web designer, developer and blogger from Australia. Whilst online, he spends most of his time knee deep in PHP code or blogging about good design and business advice. He is also a movie lover, guitar fiend, tea drinker and serial entrepreneur.

You can find out more about Jon here or you can catch up with him online via Twitter or Facebook.

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