As a business consultant, probably the number one recurring question that business owners ask me is, "What are the keys to survival in this competitive small business environment?" My response to this question has remained unchanged over the years. My reply is simple, practical, and straight-forward advice – advice, which if implemented, would dramatically increase a business owner's odds of survival and success.

My answer to the question is… "Try to emulate what other businesses have done over time that has made them successful." Notice how simple, practical, and straight-forward this advice is. This advice incorporates a process that bankers, CPAs, and consultants, like me, have used for years to determine the strengths and the weaknesses of a particular business as compared to that of other businesses. It is the process of benchmarking.

Unfortunately, most business owners do not use this valuable method of analysis, or perhaps, they are unaware of available sources to obtain the necessary data in order to benchmark their company's performance. The Business Performance Dashboard (BPD) is a valuable source of information for the business owner to use to help determine how his/her business measures up to other businesses within their industry.

The Business Performance Dashboard is a new tool from Entrepreneur.com. With this tool, a business owner can easily compare his/her business in regards to size and age with that of the average business in their industry. This BPD pinpoints areas of the business that need improvement and also, pinpoints the areas where they excel. BPD focuses largely on sales issues which include sales-per-employee statistics, sales by business age, and more. For more information, visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/benchmark/index.html.