For small to mid-sized Green Industry companies, knowing your numbers is critical. But not all metrics are created equal. To truly run a healthy, profitable business, owners and managers need to understand not just what to measure, but how and why to measure it. That starts with a clear understanding of four key types of key performance indicators (KPIs): leading indicators, lagging indicators, financial KPIs, and non-financial KPIs.
Leading vs. Lagging Indicators
Leading indicators are predictive. They give you a heads-up on where your business is headed before the final results show up. Think of them as early warning signals that help you stay proactive.
Examples for green industry businesses:
- -Number of new estimates or proposals sent this week
- -Website or ad inquiries received
- -Scheduled maintenance jobs on the calendar
- -Employee hours scheduled vs. available
These metrics can help you forecast future revenue, identify potential staffing shortages, or spot dips in demand early enough to course-correct.
Lagging indicators, on the other hand, reflect past performance. They tell you what already happened and are useful for evaluating results and setting benchmarks.
Examples:
- -Monthly revenue or profit
- -Jobs completed last quarter
- -Customer retention rate
- -Equipment downtime logged
While lagging indicators are essential for evaluating success, they don’t help you adjust in real-time. That’s why they work best when paired with leading indicators.
Financial vs. Non-Financial KPIs
Financial KPIs measure the monetary outcomes of your business activities. These are often the numbers that show up in your financial statements.
Key financial KPIs to track:
- -Gross profit margin per job
- -Net income
- -Revenue per crew or per truck
- -Accounts receivable turnover (how quickly you’re getting paid)
These metrics help you understand profitability, cash flow, and overall financial health.
Non-financial KPIs, meanwhile, don’t show up directly in your financials—but they often drive your financial results. These are typically operational, customer-focused, or employee-related metrics.
Important non-financial KPIs:
- -Job completion rate on schedule
- -Customer satisfaction or referral rates
- -Employee turnover
- -Safety incidents or equipment issues
Monitoring non-financial KPIs helps you catch problems that might otherwise lead to poor financial performance down the line.
Green industry businesses face unique operational challenges: seasonality, labor management, weather dependencies, and tight margins. That makes it especially important to:
- -Use leading indicators to plan labor and equipment needs ahead of peak seasons.
- -Track lagging indicators to benchmark profitability and efficiency from past seasons.
- -Monitor financial KPIs to ensure jobs are priced right and cash flow stays healthy.
- -Leverage non-financial KPIs to improve customer service and team performance before issues affect your bottom line.
Understanding and using these four types of KPIs helps green industry business owners move from reactive to proactive. Instead of only looking back at what happened, you can start managing what will happen—which is the key to sustainable growth and profitability.