Know Your Numbers

The one thing

A founder who does not know their numbers is flying blind. You only need a handful.

Start here

You do not need to be an accountant. You need to know a few things at any moment, and to look at them often enough that they stop being scary. Numbers are frightening only while they are hidden. Once they are in front of you on one simple page, they become just the truth about your business, which you can act on.

Here are the ones that matter at this stage.

The numbers to know

• What is coming in. The money your customers pay you.
• What is going out. Everything you spend to run and deliver.
• What it costs to win a customer. Roughly what you spend in time or money to get one yes.
• What a customer is worth. How much a customer pays you in total over the time they stay.
• How long your money lasts. If nothing changed, how many months until you run out.

The one question that ties them together

Ask yourself this. Given how you are growing and how fast money leaves, do you reach the point where more comes in than goes out before the cash runs out? If yes, you are alive and you can build. If no, you know exactly what to change, and you know it now instead of too late.

The fear, named

The fear is that the numbers will show something bad, so it feels safer not to look. That is the trap. The bad news does not go away while you avoid it. It just arrives later, bigger, with fewer options left. A founder who checks a simple dashboard every week is never caught by surprise. Looking is how you stay in control, even when the number is not the one you wanted.

Your move this week

Build a one-page dashboard with the five numbers above, filled in with your real figures. Look at it, and answer the one question: are you on track to survive on your own?

You are ready when

You know your handful of numbers and can answer, honestly, whether the business reaches the point where it pays for itself.