Jorge de Angulo, Director of Latin America, Acumen 

Mistake #1: Trying to cover too much

In my experience, the three most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when measuring impact is wanting to take on too much at once – measuring too many variables: environmental impact, gender impact, the impact on the migrant population, the impact on poverty.

What we have realized is that many times, choosing a few variables and doing so systematically and correctly is much more valuable than covering a huge number of variables that could lead to confusion. Sometimes, keeping impact measurement simple can be much more valuable – and have much more impact – than choosing many variables that can have many contradictions. 

My recommendation would be to choose a few variables that are important to measuring business impact and do so systematically, consistently, and over time.

Mistake #2: Delaying impact measurement

Another common mistake entrepreneurs make when measuring impact is to start very late with regard to these measurements. It is important – even if the company is small and just starting out – to begin the impact measurement exercise, because in our opinion and in my experience, starting early and having data from the early stages of the company allows for replicability over time.

Mistake #3: Missing core stakeholders

A third mistake, which is also very common among entrepreneurs, is not including all stakeholders at the time of conducting this impact assessment. The beneficiaries, employees, people who are in some way benefitting from the impact – it is important to have all these perspectives to get an overview of the overall impact.

Key takeaways

• Focus on a few key impact metrics to track consistently rather than trying to measure everything.

• Start measuring impact early, even in the startup phase.

• Include all stakeholders to get a complete picture of the lives impacted by your solution.