i3 - January/February 2019 - 90

Business
By Jake Sigal
A DV I C E FO R E N T R E P R E N E U RS

Three Unusual Performance
Indicators for Small Businesses

We live in a strange world where many
companies follow technology trends
out of fear of being left behind.
Spotting digital trends at CES that
make money is a bit like playing roulette. There are plenty of individual
bets you can make, or you can make
bets across a field of choices. Just be
aware of the odds and make the right
bets. Big companies have plenty of
chips to spread around, so their bets
may not be the right ones for you.
As small business owners, we must
be strategic with our bets and we
must place them wisely. Trends
emerge from CES, but some of them
are blindly followed. I like to use
objective scoring and subjective questions to reveal the metrics I'll use to
make my bets for 2019.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Here are three unusual KPIs I love to
use at CES:

1. How many companies within your

target segment can explain their
business model?
In the digital transformation business,
large companies can afford to try out
new solutions without a fully-baked business model. As small businesses, this is a
luxury we can't afford.
Regardless of whether there will be a
fundable product model, look for companies in your target segment at CES
and ask people about their business
model. You may be surprised what you
hear or what you don't hear.
For example, within the smart home
segment, how many companies have
successfully implemented a monthly
fee requirement, freemium or free
(hardware sales-only) service? How
does that percentage differ from

business models in the commercial
office or IoT product spaces?

2. How many companies are displaying a

specific technology?
Many technologies accelerate or
become decommissioned during CES
every year. Create a metric to make
your own assessment of new technology. I like to start with the supply chain.
It seems like the suppliers are all in
Vegas in January. Start with the chipset
or module suppliers and ask who's
showing off their technology solutions.
Brands often loan out prototypes to display in the vendor's booth, and that's a
good way to get a quick look at who's
working with whom.
Get a read on the number of partners
that are working with a specific technology. If there is competition between
technologies, it's also good to see who's
hedging and working with both. And
they probably have a booth, so go grab
the product managers and ask them
why they work with both.

3. How many companies can put you or

your product out of business?
I know this can seem a bit harsh, and it
probably wouldn't show up in a CES
debriefing at a big company. Our industry moves fast, and knowing your competition is key to succeeding. Large
companies have learned how to move
faster in the last five years and competition comes from everywhere these days.
If you don't have competition, odds
are you're in a space where there's no
money to be made. Competitors are one
thing, but it's important to recognize
competition that's stiff enough to
replace you for your clients or sturdy
enough to keep you from displacing
them. I like to identify direct competition
with three to five companies or products. We all play to our strengths (location, technology, cost, quality, etc.), it's
just good to know who else is going for
your revenue in 2019.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

Getty Images

t's well known that CES is the world's gathering place for
all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies.
Your company's decisions about who's going or if you're
going to exhibit lead to the typical key performance indicators,
or KPIs, reviewed in weekly meetings.

i3 - January/February 2019

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