Dashboards

What Gets Measured Gets Used

This past week, I listened in on Chris Powers and Fort Capital CEO Jason Baxter’s Annual Review. The conversation highlights the power of a not only good data but a dashboard that is used at a company level to make decisions. If you want to get right to it, listen from 36 minutes in to about 1 hour in, but I highly recommend listening to the whole episode.

At Hadrian, we use a data visualization platform to get real time insights into machine uptime, costs, delivery, and more. The interesting opportunity there for different managers is we can select data sets and manipulate it into a singular dashboard. Having the ability to create your own dashboard with several clicks is a huge time saver.

As the saying goes, what gets measured gets managed.

Looking at data and trends help make decisions or find things you may not have considered. Let’s say you think you are building a scalable business. If your revenue is going up but so is the expenses related to more products/services, you aren’t building a low capex scalable business.

Remember to not go too heavy on the dashboards. Building dashboards, SOPs, and practices that aren’t used will not help your business. Create a space that tracks the various points of data you want to know and be intentional about what dashboards you create. Make them presentable. Dashboards should provide clarity, not need explanations of what each factor is.

A dashboard is only useful if it is up-to-date and accurate. Make sure to regularly update your dashboard with new data and review it to ensure it is still meeting your goals.

We are looking to create more content that will better help operators like yourself. What practices do you have around dashboards and tracking metrics? What questions do you have?

Thanks to Everest Brady for his help, writing, and research in assembling this week’s newsletter.

Read

365 Holdings Annual Letter

15 Years in the Trenches of SMB Acquisitions and Operations: 2022 Annual Letter — Permanent Equity: Investing in Companies that Care What Happens Next
Our posture of patience, conservatism, emphasis on good decision-making, and long-term focus bore fruit in 2022 with a record year of investment, tremendous progress in building Permanent Equity for scale, and good financial results despite a tepid market and some tough situations. Reflections on 15 years of buying and operating small businesses, plus updates on the firm, the team, and new deals.
www.permanentequity.com

Listen

‎The Fort – An Entrepreneur’s Podcast: Aaron Rubin – Founder & CEO of ShipHero – Building a Better Supply Chain | The FORT #259 on Apple Podcasts
EPISODE #259 After being bailed out of his first company by his dad 15 years ago while in college, Aaron Rubin learned his lesson and founded ShipHero in 2013 as a warehouse management system for e-commerce shippers.  Since then, ShipHero has gone on to serve around $8 billion per year in orders fr…
podcasts.apple.com
‎Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy: Miles Grimshaw – The DNA of Software Companies on Apple Podcasts
My guest today is Miles Grimshaw. Miles is in his early thirties and is a General Partner at Benchmark. His experience and success belie his age. He was an early investor in Segment, Benchling, and Airtable, all before they had 30 employees. I have learned a ton from Miles about software investing a…
podcasts.apple.com
‎Acquired: Acquired Episode 39: Whole Foods Market on Apple Podcasts
Ben and David are once again live on the scene, this time covering the biggest disruption in grocery since… well, sliced bread: Amazon’s $13.7B purchase of Whole Foods Market. We place this deal in context by diving deep into the long, intertwining history of grocery, tech and Amazon, from the infam…
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‎The Michael Girdley Show: The Commercial Insurance Brokerage Business – Jonathan Crystal – e3 on Apple Podcasts
Jonathan Crystal is a 20-year veteran of the commercial insurance brokerage business.  In this episode, he explains how the business works.
podcasts.apple.com

This Week on Think Like an Owner

‎Think Like an Owner: Nick Buchanan – Company Data Dashboards at BUCS Analytics – Ep.154 on Apple Podcasts
My guest on this episode is Nick Buchanan. Nick and his father founded a data software business called BUCS Analytics in 2006. BUCS builds deep analytical dashboards for CEOs that pull from internal data sources like ERPs, inventory systems, and more. Long-time customer Trevor Flannigan, COO of the…
podcasts.apple.com

Our guest on this episode is Nick Buchanan. Nick and his father founded a data software business called BUCSanalytics in 2007. BUCS builds deep analytical dashboards for CEOs that pull from internal data sources like ERPs, inventory systems, and more. Long-time customer Trevor Flannigan, COO of the Flint Group, introduced us after hearing about my deep curiosity of data companies.

Nick and Alex talk about building the company with his father, building momentum in product development and sticking close to customers, hiring a talented team, and how to find groups and peers to help guide your entrepreneurial journey. Please enjoy this fantastic conversation with Nick Buchanan.

This episode Q&A features CEO August Felker of Oberle Risk Strategies, answering the question, “So folks talk a lot about insurance prices going up, where do you see them going down?” Oberle is the leading specialty insurance brokerage catering to search funds and the broader ETA community, providing complimentary due diligence assessments of the target company’s commercial insurance and Employee benefits programs. If you are under LOI, please reach out to learn more about how Oberle can help with insurance due diligence at oberle-risk.com. Or reach out to the CEO, August Felker, directly at [email protected].

This Week in SMB Twitter

Think Like an Owner is sponsored by:

Ravix Group – Ravix Group isa fraction CFO, outsourced accounting, and HR consulting firm serving small and large businesses alike. Whether you or someone you know is getting started, searching to buy a business, or building out an organization, Ravix will help on the journey. To learn more about Ravix Group, head to their website and tell them Think Like An Owner sent you.

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Oberle Risk Strategies– Oberle is the leading specialty insurance brokerage catering to search funds and the broader ETA community, providing complimentary due diligence assessments of the target company’s commercial insurance and Employee benefits programs. If you are under LOI, please reach out to learn more about how Oberle can help with insurance due diligence at oberle-risk.com. Or reach out to the CEO, August Felker, directly at [email protected].

Oakbourne Advisors– Oakbourne is an independent retirement plan consulting firm that helps small companies design and implement great retirement plans for their teams.  Whether you already have a 401(k) in place or are looking to start one for your team, please reach out to learn more about how Oakbourne can set your people up for success in retirement at oakbourne.com/think.

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