A self-assessment for owners

Ten numbers you should know without having to ask anyone

This isn't a test of what kind of owner you are. It's a test of whether your numbers tell you what to do next.

Tick the ones you can answer right now — without calling anyone or opening a report. A guess doesn't count. It takes five minutes and nothing is sent anywhere.

✓

How much can the person directly below you approve without asking you?

If there is no figure attached, you haven't delegated authority. You've given permission.

✓

Which day will this month's accounts be finished?

Not roughly — a date. If it's after the fifteenth, you are deciding on numbers that are six weeks old.

✓

How much cash is tied up right now in stock and work in progress?

This is the most common place where a company shows a profit and has nothing in the bank.

✓

Which job in the past year lost money?

If you can't answer with a name or a job number, profitability isn't being measured where it's created.

✓

How many days do you wait to be paid, and how many days does your supplier wait for you?

The gap between those two numbers either funds your operation or strangles it. There is no third option.

✓

Which product or service carries your highest margin — and is it the one you sell most of?

If it isn't the same one, you have just found the cheapest growth available to you.

✓

By how much did last month differ from plan, and can you say why?

A variance without an explanation is a number that unsettles you once a month and changes nothing.

✓

What does one hour of work cost you — including the hours you didn't sell?

Not the gross wage. The cost of the hour you actually invoice.

✓

Which number tells you your manager did the job well?

If no such number exists, you are judging an impression. And they know it before you do.

✓

What happens to the company if you're out for a month, starting tomorrow?

If the answer contains the word “wait”, you're carrying a risk that will cut the price the day you sell.

You can answer 0 of 10

Tick what applies

Your result appears once you go through the list.

Nobody scores ten out of ten — that isn't the goal, and it wouldn't be a good sign either.

In most of the companies where I go through this, the problem isn't that the arithmetic is wrong. The bookkeeping is usually fine. The problem is that what gets measured is not what gets managed — and that nobody owns the end result in full.

What to do if you scored low

Three things I would start with, in this order:

The closing date. While the numbers arrive late, every other improvement is wasted — you'll still be deciding on instinct.
Profitability at the level where it's created — job, product, cost centre. Not the company as a whole. A company-wide average shows nothing you can act on.
Amounts attached to authority. Every decision right needs a figure it holds up to. Without one, nothing was delegated — permission was given.

This is also the first half of what I do in a diagnostic — it's on the site under services, with the price.

Let's go through it in thirty minutes

Tell me how the list came out, and I'll tell you where I would start in your company. Free and with no obligation — and if I can't help you, I'll say so.

Pick a time in the calendar

You're welcome to send this page on, print it, or go through it with your team. There is no form behind it, I don't collect e-mail addresses, and the answers you tick stay in your browser — nothing is transmitted. Details in the privacy notice.