Master the Metrics That Drive Small Business Growth
Revenue Signals That Reveal Real Momentum
Monthly Growth and Recurring Streams
Whether you sell services, products, or retainers, charting monthly growth and any recurring streams clarifies momentum and stabilizes planning. Track new, expansion, and churned dollars separately to avoid masking issues. Annotate spikes with campaign notes, price changes, or seasonality. Automate data pulls where possible, but keep a manual sanity check to catch misclassified invoices and one‑offs that would otherwise distort your trendline and confidence.
Average Order Value and Pricing Experiments
Average order value reveals how customers assemble choices and how your packaging nudges behavior. Run small, time‑boxed pricing or bundling experiments and tag invoices to measure impact cleanly. Compare AOV by channel and customer segment to see where education or upsells land best. Keep discounts visible in reports to prevent margin leakage hiding behind higher ticket sizes that did not truly improve profitability.
Conversion Rate and Pipeline Velocity
Conversion rate and pipeline velocity connect marketing promises to cash. Define consistent stages, then measure win rate, average deal size, and days to close by source. Trim stages nobody uses. Coach follow‑ups using examples from top performers. Build a weekly report inside your CRM that flags stalled opportunities, long approvals, and silent proposals. The goal is predictable movement, not heroic end‑of‑month sprints that exhaust teams.
Margins That Protect Every Sale
Cash Flow You Can Sleep On
Operating Cash Flow and 13‑Week Forecast
Start with last month’s actuals, then build a simple 13‑week cash forecast driven by known invoices, payroll dates, taxes, and subscriptions. Tag assumptions so changes are obvious. Re‑forecast every Friday in fifteen minutes. Compare forecast to actual to learn your biases. Share a short note with your team when runway extends or tightens, inviting ideas on collections, timing, and discretionary spend. Confidence grows when visibility improves.
Cash Conversion Cycle: DSO, DIO, DPO Working Together
The cash conversion cycle links receivables, inventory, and payables into one practical clock. Rather than memorizing formulas, focus on levers: invoice faster, collect sooner, turn stock quicker, and negotiate smarter terms. Post weekly DSO, DIO, and DPO snapshots with color‑coded trends. Celebrate the boring wins, like emailing statements early, batching deliveries, or consolidating orders. Small, repeatable improvements here often fund marketing, hiring, and product experiments.
Cash Runway, Buffers, and Scenario Drills
Runway is not just months of cash; it is optionality. Maintain a minimum buffer, line up a backup facility before you need it, and test downside scenarios quarterly. Assign triggers that prompt action, like two missed pipeline targets or rising churn. Practice a calm, pre‑agreed playbook covering expenses, pricing, and collections. Communicating this discipline to staff and lenders builds trust long before a crisis demands it.
Revenue per Employee and Capacity Planning
Operating Expense Ratio and Cost Cadence
Receivables, Payables, and Credit Control
Days Sales Outstanding and Invoicing Habits
Collections Without Burning Bridges
Forecasts, Dashboards, and Rituals That Stick
Tooling Without the Overhead
Cadence, Ownership, and Meeting Rhythm
Data Hygiene and Audit Trails
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