Three numbers every founder should read on Monday

Why three

When a company grows past fifty people, the founder stops seeing the work and starts reading about it. Reports get longer, meetings get longer, and the signal gets weaker. In most of the companies we work with, three numbers tell the founder more than the full pack. They are simple to compute, they move every week, and each one points at a decision.

1. Cash you can use

Not cash in the bank: cash in the bank minus what you already owe this month. If that number falls three Mondays in a row, something has changed in how customers pay or how you buy, long before it shows in the accounts.

2. Promises kept

The share of orders, projects or tickets delivered when you said they would be. It is the fastest way to see stress in the operation, and customers feel it before you do. Below 90 percent, ask where the work waited, not who was slow.

A Monday review at Tessel Foods, week 12.

3. Work started, not finished

Count the jobs that are open: orders in production, projects in progress, deals in negotiation. When this number grows faster than revenue, the team is busy but not productive. It is the earliest sign that you need fewer priorities, not more people.

How to start

1. Pick one owner for each number.

2. Compute it the same way every week, even if it is imperfect.

3. Read the three numbers together, in the first ten minutes of Monday.

4. Ask one question per number, and write the answer down.

None of this needs new software. It needs the same three numbers, at the same time, every week. After a quarter, you will know your company’s rhythm better than any report could tell you.