Metrics and growth

[Roughby]

HI. I'm new round here. Kinda. I have been searching for information on metrics and benchmarking. Short story. I'm third generation stone fabricator who is taking over the family business and I am trying to grow the company. The last generation is still kinda old school, as in using computers is still stupid, so you can imagine my fight that I have day after day. I am doing my best to hold on and hoping to start growing the company so any advice and help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Mark Meriaux]

The MIA+BSI conducts an annual industry-wide business survey (of both members and non-members).
Detailed survey results are available to survey participants and MIA+BSI members at no-charge, and to non-members for $199.
Here is info on the most recent survey:
http://www.marble-institute.com/stonepr ... tatistics/

[Dave.Scott]

The MIA Benchmark survey is an invaluable tool for anyone who needs a ruler to compare your operation to other like-sized organization.

I highly recommend it.

[Roughby]

I am interested but before I buy $200 of information what is it that it will tell me exactly. Is it financials per same size company? What benchmarks is it going to show? This company has never had any kind of metrics indicators nor even a budget to work with. Where is it that I should start? We are a company of basically 2.5 employees and do around $400,000 a year. I guess I am just looking for a starting point and what are the crucial factors that need to be priorities. Again thanks for the information.

[Caleb]

It would seem to me that if you do not have any information to work with that you would not know if, indeed, you are growing And if that growth is leading to more profitability. IMO you need to start gathering this data. If you already have this information but it is in a ledger book and not on a computer, that is fine... numbers are numbers.

Financial information is based off 3 pieces of information

-Cash flow: What your cycles of cash are doing
-Profit and Loss: What your profit or loss is after you have paid for materials and labor and overhead
-Balance Sheet: Shows what stuff you have, who owes you and who you owe.

IMO when you're doing 400k per year you would need pretty good information to know if you are growing or not.. If you go from 400k to 1M the next year, there is no doubt you are growing but you still need the information to know if you made any more profit than you did at 400k

Not sure if that helps you or not, but I hope so...

[Dave.Scott]

The MIA Benchmark includes information about; the participants, their employee breakdown, facility size, what equipment they use, utility and tooling costs; sales per: employee, employee payroll $$, showroom square footage; stone production per sq ft, thickness, stone type; and population size of their market.

19% of the respondents (40 businesses) were in your stated $$ sales size, you could look right at their information and draw some real life metrics that can be directly applied to your operation.

I think $200 is a bargain.

[Caleb]

Also-- there are many many more in depth threads related to growth and metrics in the members area... you should join!

[Roughby]

Awesome. Thanks guys. I appreciate it. I have a lot of work to do. I will become a member pronto. I would like to do some research on this. I will purchase the report but not until I have a clear understanding of where the company is financially . Again thanks for the help. I am all ears if anyone has more advice.

[Mark Meriaux]

I am interested but before I buy $200 of information what is it that it will tell me exactly. Is it financials per same size company? What benchmarks is it going to show? This company has never had any kind of metrics indicators nor even a budget to work with. Where is it that I should start? We are a company of basically 2.5 employees and do around $400,000 a year. I guess I am just looking for a starting point and what are the crucial factors that need to be priorities. Again thanks for the information.

Here are links to the 2013 & 2014 Executive Summaries of the reports. 2015 results are still being compiled.
The full reports have more detailed question-by-question results.

2013 Exec Summary http://www.marble-institute.com/default ... y_only.pdf

2014 Exec Summary http://www.marble-institute.com/default ... xecSum.pdf

Be on the lookout to take the 2016 survey in early 2017:

What do you get for participating?

Complete the survey for a chance to win one of these prizes:

Cash prize ranging from $100 to $500 complements of Granite Mountain Enterprises
One of 6 Moxie® Showerhead+Wireless Speaker by Kohler
$250 MIA Bookstore Credit
(2015/2016 prizes listed above. Prizes subject to change for 2016/2017 survey.)
All participants will receive a report that compares your fabrication company with similar firms. This report provides a basis for understanding and improving your firm's profitability. Many firms find this kind of report useful when working with lenders to discuss loans and lines of credit.

How much does it cost to participate in the 2015 survey?

Due to the generous support of Cosentino USA, Kohler Company and Tenax USA, participation is FREE for all stone fabricators. MIA membership is NOT required.

[jrupert3]

Thank you Mark, these reports are very helpful.

[Dan R.]

1. Your company's past info is data. Look at it. Manage it.
2. Start managing business segments (office, shop, install) individually.
3. Begin to integrate technology. Moraware may be a good start.
4. The benchmark survey just gives the combined stats of participants (including avefae, mean, median,etc stats). Not sure how exactly it helps, except to compare johnsons, as each shop is unique in at least one sense, if not more. In the past this survey was free because of sponsors.
5. Develop a management plan that works for you. Talk to shops of similar size and larger. As the company grows, so will the management requirements and style
6. Attend workshops. I find them the most valuanle source of seeing work flow/material handling, as eell as networking face to face.

[jblythe]

One thing I have come to find over the years of comparing metrics with respect to stone shops is, that it is not always apples to apples. Not only that, but you have to consider the source of the data. Not all information is the same. And it is only as reliable as the person who calculated it. There are however, a few metrics that I find valuable when it comes to managing a shop.

1. Rework/Remake %
2. Material Yield
3. Sqft/Hr (Per man hour in the shop)

Those are what I look at on a regular basis to gauge the performance of the shop. As far as benchmarks go, I wouldn't worry so much about comparing yourself to others. Just set some goals for yourself and try to hit them. At the very least, it may get you looking at your processes in a different way and you will make your shop better than it is. Good luck!

[smoothcut JUST]

I love these 3 metric formulas for the shop. We are going to apply them to 2019 and see where we get.
Thanks for sharing!

[JOHN_T]

I have been trying to make sense of this buisness for many years .To say the least it is quite challenging analyzing Data .I think that 3 metric formula is probably the most important info you need .

[Joe Percoco]

One quick down and dirty is to compare your gross per number of people. say you do $400,000 per year and there are 4 of you = $100K per person. A large "factory" shop in your area may do $12,000,000 per year and have 130 employees. That would equate to $92,000/ person gross sales. It may show you that your company is at least in the ball park. Now figure out how to slowly grow the business without taking on many more people. Don't necessarily dis the lack of technology. All that fancy stuff costs a lot to purchase and maintain.