We leave our clients in a better place than where they started – or at least, this is our aim!

And the more other people can see proof that what we do for our clients’ work – the more they can see people just like them experiencing the same things and going on to get the results they too desire – the more our businesses thrive.

So what’s that got to do with impact?

Being able to prove our services are effective – that they have the desired impact – is such a powerful tool.

And your impact in business is the difference you make to the lives and businesses of the people you support.

Once you have a way of measuring and proving this impact, you have endless material for your marketing, for PR, for funding applications, new business pitches, awards entries…

The list goes on.

But how do you start to measure things that feel “unmeasurable”?

It IS possible to measure change.

We’re probably used to businesses talking about the results they get (another definition for impact) in terms of their numbers.

But I want to show you that it’s possible to prove your impact when the outcomes that your clients get feel harder to count.

The five steps to get you started with proving your impact

Incorporate these five simple steps into business as usual, and you will start to build up an evidence bank of the impact you have on your clients.

1. Understand that measuring impact is more than counting numbers

Free yourself from fixating on counting how many clients you’ve got signed up, how big your turnover is, or how many projects you’ve delivered this year.

Instead, to really get a handle on your impact, you need to go back to your overarching mission and vision for your business. What are you trying to achieve through your business?

Impact is the difference you make, the impression you leave, and the value you create. Your impact could be a change in attitude, the acquisition of new skills, an increase in confidence, the breaking down of barriers, the creation of new opportunities, and so much more.

So you’re not looking for things that you can tot up or count, you’re looking for evidence of the change you are making.

2. Be clear about what it is that you want to achieve for your clients

Start by thinking about the overarching transformation you want to create for your clients and break it down into a list of smaller changes. List all of the things that will happen for your clients during their time working with you.

Getting to the ultimate end goal for your clients is probably going to take a while, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t having a positive impact in the meantime.

Instead, smaller-scale transformations will be happening continuously – breakthroughs in their businesses, changes in attitudes, improvements in their knowledge… the list goes on.

Note down all these things, and then decide which of them are the most important for your ideal clients.  Keep that list of changes close to hand. THIS will be where your impact lies!

3. Capture a baseline

To confidently measure the impact that you have had on your clients, you need to know where they started out. So, before you dive head-first into delivering anything, be careful to record where they begin on their journey with you, because where they end up and how they got there will be where you find evidence of your impact.

Take your list of changes, and create a short set of simple, multiple choice questions about them that will help you to gauge where your clients are at the start of working with you. Collecting this information when you begin gives you a baseline: something against which to compare their progress over time.

Imagine you are a confidence coach. You might want to ask things like: “To what extent does your lack of confidence affect your day-to-day life?” and give people a choice of answers to select such as: “Not at all”, “To some extent” or “To a great extent”. Do this for all the changes you’d like to measure.

Give your clients a way of articulating their start point so you can begin to prove the impact you have on them through your work.

4. Know what success would look like

Make sure that you know what success is going to look like for your clients. How will you know if the work you’ve done for them has had the desired effect?

As you work with that person over time, look for clues of that success taking place. Think about the things that you know are going to change for your client and record when that happens.

Then, when they finish their journey with you, revisit your baseline questions. Ask them again how they feel about the thing they were struggling with.

The difference between their scores at the beginning and their answers at the end is your impact. It’s the evidence of the change you’ve created: the difference you’ve made to their lives.

5. Celebrate your impact!

Once you’ve started to routinely collect this information, celebrate it. Share it. Shout it from the rooftops. Make sure you do something positive with it!

Talk about it on your social media. Write articles about it. Use it for PR. Incorporate it into your presentations, keynotes and masterclasses. Weave it into your marketing. Add it to your pitches, or your grant applications. Share testimonials, quotes, case studies that prove that your work creates an impact.

It can truly transform the way that your business is perceived.

Evidence of your impact is such a powerful tool to have in your armoury.

I hope you’re feeling inspired to show the world the difference you make!

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