Business Logs – A discussion
Business Journals seem like a lot of work if you have never done one. For times like now, they become like an old friend who listens without judgement. Their page corners tattered, and the cover worn smooth, the info they hold is a foundation for a movie or a fine documentary.
The Pandemic of 2020/2021 made journalists of many folks, and some new business owners. Those that kept a journal during those hard times, for the most part, answered 4 questions each day.
Although it was a lonely time, the questions prompted responses as if there was a dialogue between owner and customer.
Now that we’ve surfaced from the Covid-19 days, we still face challenges every day of our business lives. Knowing what you faced and how you handled it is priceless information. Thinking you can depend on your memory is not a good plan, we have so much to take care of every day, we need to be writing it down.
Write It Down Daily
We’ve used a Daily Business Log every day for the 40+ years we owned and operated a retail gift shop in a tourist economy. The four questions we answered every day were:
- Total daily sales, # of stoppers, and average amount spent per customer.
- What tasks did we identify needed completing and what needed to be added to the list?
- What special events were scheduled for this quarter and next quarter that needed to be planned for?
- What trips did we take that day, if any. Record the mileage and stops.
- We maintained a Notes section for custom orders, problems, community requests and misc. customer information.
At first, this was written in two places. We kept a simple spreadsheet by the cash register to record the daily sales totals and number of stoppers per day. If you are online, your website software will provide you with the number of stoppers you had on your website.
The second place was a small journal where we recorded all the tasks, events, trips, and notes. Eventually we put it together on one page similar to the one that follows this post. Expenses are kept on a different spreadsheet and recorded at the end of each month.
Starting with this process, you’ll know where you always stand financially. As you grow your business, you might want to utilize computer-based accounting programs, but they do NOT replace your Daily Business Log. We have our Daily Business Journals for the past 40+ years. To this day we check back to be sure we’re quoting our figures correctly. And getting investors interested in your business can be promoted with certainty using your Daily Business Logs.
Get Your Own Log
Our Daily Business Log page is available to download here for $5.00. If you are a member of WIB-Network, it is available as part of your annual membership fee. Let us know you’d like a copy, and we’ll send you a code to get it for free.
You can also order a printed, spiral bound 6 x 9” edition of 95 pages for $ 30.00. This quarterly Reset edition provides the pages for planning your next quarter and recording your sales information all in one journal. Visit our sales page here.
The account column is for the Account name and/or number. Details column is for any unusual expenses you might have incurred. Posted column is for you to post to your Income and Expense Spreadsheet. We’ll go over that next week.
Until then - - - - -