2 Minutes That Could Save Your Life and Your Business

Dreams are great. But without goals and measurements it’s hard to turn dreams into reality. We’re halfway through 2025, here’s a critical tool I use to make business dreams come true.

The biggest cause of death to a business is the owner not knowing their key numbers.

I’ve been coaching businesspeople since 1997.

Why do I bring this up today? I’ve seen it time and time again.

You HAVE to know the numbers!

We are at the halfway point of 2025 (Time flies!). This is the perfect time to reflect on where you’ve been, where you’re going, and how you intend to get there.

This is halftime.

Half the year is done. What will you do for the second half?

Do you know your numbers?

Do you even know what numbers you should know?

Read on for a two-minute life and business saving tool. It is the one essential tool that has helped my clients for 28 years.

It’s a big thing, but a simple one: Check the numbers.

What Should You Be Looking At?

Successful athletes know the score of the game at all times. They also know what other statistics they should know to be successful.

It is the same in business.

To succeed, you need to know the numbers.

The way to succeed in business.

Money.

Simply put; no money, no business.

So, let’s focus at the halfway point of the year on how to think about money. Hint: Revenue isn’t the most important thing.

Keeping Score: How to REALLY Know When You’re Succeeding

Every successful businessperson knows WHAT numbers to keep track of and THEY CONSTANTLY KEEP TRACK OF THESE ESSENTIAL NUMBERS. What numbers are you tracking?

Here are some thoughts:

• Sales – everybody loves to look at the sales number. It’s easy to see. Easy to compare to last year, last quarter, last week.

• But what if sales are going up and you are losing money every day; that’s not success.

• Profits – Profit is a good word. But, sometimes, it takes a while to find out what the profits are. Do you get a profit and loss report from your accounting department every day?

• Payables – How much money do you owe people and vendors? What are your total payables? Are your payables increasing faster than your cash?

• Accounts Receivable – What are your accounts receivable? What is the total number? Are your accounts receivable current. Or do people owe you money for 30 days, 45 days, 60 days or more. This can kill a business.

• Cash – How much cash do you have? If you have more cash today than yesterday, you must be doing something right. Unless your payables continue to outpace cash.

So, what number should you be looking at and how often?

Each business is unique. But each business can determine the numbers that they should be looking at daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.

Regardless of industry or size of the business, I’ve found one solution to this problem that works. The solution:

Create a custom dashboard with the numbers that are important to you and your business.

Once created, KEEP IT UP-TO-DATE!

Some numbers should be updated daily. Other numbers should be updated weekly, monthly, and quarterly.

This will give you the information you need to

• run your business,

• adjust the operations,

• fine tune methods and procedures,

• and run your business successfully.

Here are four ideas to get you started as you create your own business dashboard:

1. Sales – daily, weekly monthly, quarterly and yearly

2. Is your invoicing up to date? You would be surprised at how many businesses are behind in invoicing.

3. Your accounts receivable. What are your accounts receivable? What is the total number? Are your accounts receivable current? Or do people owe you money for 30 days? 45 days? 60 days? More? This can kill a business.

4. What are your accounts payable? Are your accounts payable up to date? Do you pay your vendors within their terms? Do you take advantage of discounts, if you pay your vendors early?

These are just some of the numbers to look at.

Each department within your business should have a specific dashboard that is unique for them to run their departments.

Wait, But What About Saving My Life?!?!

I know I started this by including “life” in the title and then only spoke about business, money, and revenue. But poor business decisions affect people’s health all the time.

Here’s why I think understanding the numbers CAN help save your life. Many business owners feel personally tied to their business. When the business is doing well, so do they. When it’s not going well . . .

I met a business owner who had suffered a heart attack before I met him. He said the heart attack was caused from the stress of the business. He felt that he was mismanaging his business — including misunderstanding that overall revenue didn’t mean his business was healthy. His “organizational” chart looked like a bicycle wheel with a bunch of spokes and the owner was in the middle. A reporting structure with him in the center of everything. This business owner became a client, regained his health, learned how to use his custom dashboard and became highly successful. We even ended up playing racquetball together. That is how healthy he became.

We all understand that there’s a link between stress and poor health (and negative consequences, like a heart attack). When you understand how money works to sustain your business, your stress levels will be lower. So, while I might not be saving your life like a doctor would, I can help your business life become less stressful.

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If you would like help setting up your custom-made dashboard that is unique to your business, feel free to sign up for a free business coaching call. I promise it won’t be stressful! After doing this for the past 28 years for my clients, I can guarantee you’ll get started on the right track.