Prioritize Your Way to Success: Use a Business ScoreCard

“How do I set daily, monthly, quarterly or yearly priorities?”

That’s a question I’m often asked by clients and new prospects alike. The truth is that small business owners wear many hats from janitor to speaker and everything in between. Every day more management and marketing tasks are piled onto your “to do” lists.

Without effective systems, business owners don’t know what needs their immediate attention, and which items can be “dumped” or put on hold. Instead of enjoying your business success, time is wasted putting out fires, and rushing from one thing to the next. How do you balance everything that has to be done, when there is so much to do?

A popular secret of corporate America is the “Balanced Score Card” (BSC). It’s a simple tool used by big businesses for a reason -it works! The BSC is a decisive part of your business planning process, as a strategic performance management system. With a BSC you can easily account for every aspect of your business. It is used every day by companies of all sizes; from home based Internet businesses to big business, and it can work for you too!

According to Wikipedia, the BSC was first created in 1987 by Art Schneiderman. A separate business study by Robert S. Kaplan and David P Norton took the process forward (apparently without giving formal attribution to Mr. Schneiderman) with their groundbreaking book, The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Many books and software processes, based on the BSC, have continued to help companies track their BSC initiatives since.

Four key elements exist within the BSC: financial, customer, business process, and learning and growth. The process begins as you create balanced objectives and strategies for your business. Answering the questions we have provided below will get you started:

1. Financial – What numbers do you need to measure your business by, to succeed financially?

2. Customer – Who is your ideal client and how much of their business do you need to be successful?

3. Business Process – What internal or external processes must be created, or revised in order to excel?

4. Learning & Growth – What resources do your team and business need, to grow and improve?

Regular planning and setting priorities are critical for your business success. Bring the concept of a Balanced Score Card to your company’s business plan today. Because when you can measure it, you can manage it!

NOTE: The BCA methods are a regular part of creating your One Page Business Plan®. To learn more about this unique planning system for small business owners, and to view sample plans, visit http://www.BusinessAndMarketingPlan.com

(c) 2010 Maria Marsala, ElevatingYourBusiness.com  To reproduce or use contact us first for permission.