Happy Wednesday.

I had a call yesterday with a business owner doing $28K a month in revenue. Good business. Solid offer. Decent traffic. But when I asked him what his conversion rate was, he said, "I think around 25%?"

I think.

Then I asked about his average deal value. "Somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000."

Somewhere.

Cost per lead? "Not sure, I'd have to check Facebook."

This is a smart guy. He's built a real business. But he's running it on vibes and spreadsheets he updates once a month when he remembers.

And here's the thing: you can't scale on vibes.

The Dashboard Gap

Most business owners have data everywhere. Facebook Ads Manager. Stripe dashboard. CRM reports. Google Analytics. Calendar app. Bank account.

Six different tabs. Three different logins. Zero cohesive picture of what's actually happening.

So when someone asks, "How's business?" you say, "Pretty good," because you genuinely don't know if it's pretty good or pretty bad. You just know money came in and you're still here.

That's not a business strategy. That's survival mode.

The Reality Check:

If you can't answer these five questions in under 30 seconds, you don't have visibility into your business:

These aren't trick questions. These are the basics. And if you're opening three tabs and doing math to answer them, you're wasting time you don't have.

What Gets Measured Gets Managed

Peter Drucker said it. Every business book quotes it. But nobody actually does it.

Because measuring stuff is boring. Building dashboards feels like homework. And when you're in the trenches running a business, tracking metrics seems like something you'll get to "later."

Except later never comes. And six months go by and you realize you've been guessing your way through every decision.

Real Example:

Client came to me in November. Doing $22K months. Wanted to hit $50K by March.

First thing I asked: "What's your conversion rate?"

He didn't know.

So we pulled the data. Turns out he was converting at 18%. Industry average is 25-30%. He was leaving $8K on the table every single month just because he didn't know he had a conversion problem.

We fixed his sales process. Tightened up his follow-up. Added some urgency to his offers. Conversion rate jumped to 28% in six weeks.

Same traffic. Same offer. Just better execution because we could see what was broken.

That's the power of visibility. You can't fix what you can't see.

The 8 Numbers That Matter

You don't need 47 metrics. You don't need a PhD in analytics. You need eight numbers that tell you if your business is healthy or hemorrhaging.

1. Weekly Revenue

Not monthly. Weekly. Because monthly numbers hide problems. If you have a bad week in week one, you don't find out until week four when the month closes and you're like, "Oh shit, we're down $10K."

Weekly revenue gives you real-time feedback. You know by Friday if you had a good week or a bad week. You can course-correct immediately instead of waiting 30 days.

2. New Leads Generated

How many new people entered your world this week? Not followers. Not likes. Actual leads who gave you their contact info and said, "Tell me more."

This is your pipeline. If this number drops, your revenue drops in 2-4 weeks. It's a leading indicator. Watch it like a hawk.

3. Lead Source Breakdown

Where are your leads coming from? Facebook ads? Referrals? Organic social? SEO?

You need to know this because not all leads are created equal. A referral lead might convert at 60%. A cold Facebook lead might convert at 15%. If you don't track source, you can't optimize spend.

4. Lead-to-Booking Conversion Rate

What percentage of leads actually book a call or demo with you?

Industry benchmark: 30-40%. If you're below that, you've got a nurture problem or a trust problem. If you're above that, you're doing something right and should double down.

5. Show Rate

Of the people who book, how many actually show up?

We covered this Monday. If your show rate is below 70%, you're bleeding money. Fix this first before you spend another dollar on ads.

6. Close Rate

Of the people who show up, how many buy?

This is your sales effectiveness metric. If it's below 25%, you either have a sales problem or a qualification problem. You're talking to the wrong people or saying the wrong things.

7. Average Deal Value

What's the average amount someone pays you when they buy?

This number should be trending up over time. If it's flat or declining, you're either discounting too much or not upselling effectively.

8. Cost Per Lead (If Running Ads)

How much are you paying to get someone into your world?

This needs to be tracked against your average deal value and close rate. If you're paying $50 per lead, closing at 25%, and your average deal is $2,000, your math works. If any of those numbers shift, your math breaks.

The Dashboard You Actually Need

Here's what most people do: they build a massive spreadsheet with 40 tabs and 200 formulas. It takes three hours to update. They use it twice and then abandon it.

That's not a dashboard. That's a data graveyard.

A real dashboard is:

That's it. If your dashboard doesn't meet those five criteria, it's not helping you.

How to Build It (The Simple Way)

You've got two options:

Option 1: Build It Yourself

Use Notion, Airtable, or Google Sheets. Connect your tools via Zapier or Make.com. Set up automations to pull data daily.

Time investment: 6-8 hours if you know what you're doing. 15-20 hours if you're figuring it out as you go.

Pros: Free (minus tool costs). Fully customized to your business.

Cons: Takes time. Requires technical knowledge. Easy to overcomplicate.

Option 2: Use a Template

Grab a pre-built dashboard template. Plug in your data sources. Start tracking immediately.

Time investment: 1-2 hours.

Pros: Fast. Proven structure. No guesswork.

Cons: Costs money (but way less than 20 hours of your time).

What Happens When You Have Visibility

Let me paint you a picture of what changes when you actually know your numbers:

You stop guessing. Someone asks how business is going, you say, "Up 18% week over week, conversion rate is at 32%, and we're on track for a $35K month." Not "pretty good."

You catch problems early. Lead volume drops 30% in week one. You see it immediately and fix it. Instead of realizing three weeks later when revenue tanks.

You make better decisions. You see that referrals convert at 55% and Facebook ads convert at 18%. So you double down on referral systems instead of throwing more money at ads.

You scale with confidence. You know your unit economics. You know if you spend $1,000 on ads, you'll generate $4,200 in revenue. So you can scale spend without fear.

You stop working weekends. Because you're not constantly wondering if things are okay. You check your dashboard Monday morning, see everything's on track, and go live your life.

That's what visibility does. It turns chaos into clarity. Anxiety into confidence. Guesswork into growth.

The January Challenge (Part 2)

Monday I challenged you to fix your no-show problem. Today I'm challenging you to build your dashboard.

By this time next week, you should be able to answer those five questions in under 30 seconds:

If you can do that, you're ahead of 90% of business owners at your revenue level.

Want the Plug-and-Play Dashboard?

I built a Notion dashboard template that tracks all eight metrics automatically. It connects to your CRM, payment processor, and ad accounts. Updates daily. One page. Zero maintenance.

It's the exact dashboard I use in my business and with every client. Normally $197. This week it's $97.

You get:

Most people have it running in under 2 hours. Some do it in 90 minutes.

If you want it, comment DASHBOARD below and I'll send you the link.

Stop guessing. Start knowing.

- Dan