How to Monitor and Assess Your Strategy
Turn your business plan into a handful of numbers you track every month, spot problems early, adjust with confidence and report clearly to lenders and partners.
What you'll learn
- Turn a business plan or strategy into three to five measurable objectives
- Choose a small set of leading and lagging KPIs that match your objectives
- Set baselines and realistic targets using your own past records and seasonal patterns
- Collect reliable performance data from sales records, MoMo statements, logs and customer and staff feedback
- Build a one-page KPI dashboard in Excel or Google Sheets with targets, variances and traffic-light status
- Run monthly and quarterly performance reviews that end in clear actions and owners
- Analyse variances and trends and trace a shortfall back to its real cause
- Decide when to hold, adjust or change your strategy, and report progress honestly to lenders, donors and partners
Who this course is for
- Owners and managers of micro, small and medium enterprises who have a plan and want to know if it is working
- Directors and programme managers of small NGOs and community-based organisations reporting to donors
- Business support officers, accountants and bookkeepers who help small firms track performance
- Entrepreneurs preparing for a loan, an investor or a grant who need to show evidence of progress
Course content
8 sections · 42 lessons · 7h 20mStart here: welcome to How to Monitor and Assess Your Strategy 3 lessons · 18 min
Module 1: Why monitoring matters and how to make your strategy measurable 5 lessons · 50 min
Module 2: Choosing KPIs and setting baselines and targets 6 lessons · 59 min
Module 3: Collecting data simply, including customer and staff feedback 6 lessons · 59 min
Module 4: Building a simple dashboard in Excel or Google Sheets 6 lessons · 1h 1m
Module 5: Monthly and quarterly reviews, and analysing performance 6 lessons · 1h 4m
Module 6: Adjusting your strategy and reporting to lenders, donors and partners 6 lessons · 1h 3m
Final module: your monitoring routine and final assessment 4 lessons · 1h 6m
Before you start
- A business, NGO or unit you manage, or one you know well enough to use as a practice case
- Basic comfort with a spreadsheet (typing numbers, simple sums); the formulas are explained step by step
- Access to Microsoft Excel or a free Google account for Google Sheets, on a laptop if possible
- About 7 hours spread over two to four weeks
About this course
Most small businesses and NGOs in Ghana do have a plan. It was written for a loan application, a donor proposal or a new year, and then it went into a drawer. Six months later the owner knows that sales feel slow and cash feels tight, but cannot say which part of the plan is working and which is not.
This course fixes that. It is written for owners and managers of small businesses and small NGOs who want a simple, honest way to check whether their strategy is working. You will turn your plan into a few measurable objectives, choose five to eight KPIs that tell you something useful, set baselines and targets you can defend, and collect the data from records you already keep: the sales book, MoMo statements, the delivery log and what customers and staff tell you.
You will then build a one-page dashboard in Excel or Google Sheets, formula by formula, and learn to run a one-hour monthly review and a half-day quarterly review. We cover variance analysis, trends and finding the real cause of a problem, how to decide whether to hold, fix or change the plan, and how to write a short report that a loan officer or donor will trust.
Every lesson uses worked examples in cedis from businesses you will recognise: a bakery in Kasoa, a phone repair shop in Tamale, a youth skills centre in Ho. There is no heavy theory and no expensive software. You walk away with a working dashboard design, a review routine and a personal action plan for the next 90 days.
This course looks at business performance and small-organisation strategy. If you work in a Ministry, Department, Agency or Assembly, the separate public sector monitoring and evaluation course will suit you better.
Your instructor
SkillsPillar Faculty
Practitioners and trainers in strategy, public service, enterprise and workplace compliance
SkillsPillar courses are written by practitioners who have trained graduates, managers, public servants and business owners across Ghana. Every course is built around real situations, practical tools and activities that test judgement, not memory.
Learner reviews
No reviews yet. Learners who enrol can leave the first one.
Frequently asked
How do I pay for a course?
Pay securely with MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash, AT Money, Visa or Mastercard through Hubtel. You get access straight after payment.
How long do I have access?
Until you finish. There is no deadline: learn at your own pace for as long as you need. When you complete the course and receive your certificate, the course closes. Your certificate stays in your account for good, and anyone can check it online.
Do I get a certificate?
Yes. Finish every lesson in a course and a certificate is issued automatically. Each one has a QR code and a public link employers can use to check it.
Can I learn on my phone?
Yes. Everything works on a phone, tablet or computer, and your progress follows you between devices.
You might also like
Is Business for Me? Deciding to Start
Decide honestly whether to start a business, in what form, and what you can afford to risk, then write a one-page direction statement and a 90-day commitment.
Business Planning Basics for MSMEs
Test your business idea, research your market cheaply, work out the numbers and write a clear business plan you can take to a bank, an investor or a grant panel in Ghana.
Finding a Business Idea That Pays
Spot a real problem near you, talk to ten possible customers, check the cedis and choose one small business idea you can start within 30 days.