Transcription Service: Sharing Insights - Objective Monitoring

If you can get through the first few years in business, you are doing well as it is well-documented that the majority of business start-ups fail within the first few years. As part of our marketing activity, we try to share insights within the new business owner community as a way to address some common themes that we, and other new business owners, may be dealing with.

The topic of our insight this week is ‘Objective Monitoring’. Setting smart objectives around business performance at the start-up stage of a new business requires vision. It is about having insight, foresight, confidence, and a desire to succeed, while being realistic about what can be achieved over time.

For example, a key start-up objective set for LS Transcripts aims to deliver professionally transcribed and proofread documents for professionals in the medical, academic and commercial business fields, up to the value of 100,000 audio minutes within the first five years of operation. Everything about the business is geared towards reaching this overarching objective. Our team management systems, client care plan, business systems and processes, and marketing activity are aligned, monitored, and amended to meet this objective.

So, how is LS Transcripts doing? Lindsay Smith, business owner, responds:

“In year one, LS Transcripts reached 15% of the objective terms. During year two, we increased our impact to around 21%. This 6% increase on the previous year gave us a lot of confidence. Then, in year three, we dropped slightly to 20% which triggered a full analysis and amendment of our strategy. By the end of year four, and having worked to our newly amended strategy, we increased our impact to 29%. All in all, we are on course at 85% with six months of our five-year plan to go. It is going very well, thanks to our team, our clients, and our strategy.

What is your best tip to complement this insight?

“It is ‘good data in = good data out’. Our business performance reports are at our fingertips, which helps us to adapt to change, and to identify new opportunities quickly, within the environment. The reports were our gold dust when we experienced a slight slip during year three. We compared and reviewed all elements of the business in collaboration with the team, and new ideas began to flow. We made amendments to our strategy in the operational, financial, and marketing contexts. So, my main tip for year one new business owners is to collect data, and collect everything in a systematic way. Whether it leads to a breakthrough or a lesson learned, it is all useful in the advancement of your business.