The only 3 metrics that actually matter
Most founder dashboards look like the cockpit of a 747.
You have charts for everything: Impressions, Bounce Rate, Time on Page, CTR, Engagement Rate, Follower Growth.
You feel smart looking at them. You spend hours tweaking colors and moving widgets.
But if I asked you, "Is your business healthier today than it was last month?", you would hesitate. You would point to a "green arrow" on a chart that doesn't pay the bills.
Here is the hard truth: If a metric does not change your behavior, it is a vanity metric.
You don't need a dashboard. You need a pulse check.
Founders who scale efficiently ignore 90% of the data. They track the flow of money, backwards.
The "pulse" system
You only need to care about three numbers.
Everything else is noise.
1. Cash (The result)
* Metric: Net New Revenue (Cash collected, not booked).
* Why: Bookings are a promise. Cash is a fact.
Many founders celebrate a "record sales month" but run out of cash because payment terms are Net 60.
If this number is flat, nothing else matters. You are stalling.
2. Leads (The predictor)
* Metric: Qualified Sales Opportunities (QSOs).
* Definition: A call booked with someone who can buy and has the problem.
* Why: Revenue is a lagging indicator. It tells you what happened 30 days ago. Leads are a leading indicator. They tell you what will happen in 30 days.
If your leads drop today, your revenue drops next month. This is your early warning system.
3. Traffic (The fuel)
* Metric: Unique visitors to your "Offer Page" (or replies to outreach).
* Why: You can't get leads without eyes.
This tells you if your distribution engine is on or off. If you have great conversion but no traffic, you will starve.
The weekly review
Stop checking Google Analytics every day. It is anxiety, not management.
Every Monday morning, look at these three numbers in a simple spreadsheet.
The Debugging Protocol:
* Is Cash down?
* Look at your sales calls. Are you closing?
* Look at your payment terms. Are you collecting?
* Are Leads down?
* Look at your offer. Is it clear?
* Look at your landing page. Is it converting?
* Is Traffic down?
* Look at your activity. Did you stop posting?
* Did you stop sending emails?
This system takes 5 minutes a week.
It gives you absolute clarity on where the bottleneck is.
Stop drowning in data. Watch the flow. Fix the bottleneck. Ignore the rest.
