Measure what matters, not what’s easy

In business, you get what you measure. Peter Drucker nailed it: “What gets measured gets managed.” The problem? Most CEOs are measuring crap that doesn’t matter. Vanity dashboards, pretty graphs, a hundred KPIs no one looks at.

It’s bollocks.

It’s like the old joke about a drunk looking for his keys under a streetlight. When asked what he was doing, he says he dropped them somewhere else but the light is better here so it’s easier to look for them. That’s what lots of businesses do – they measure the easy metrics but not necessarily the important ones. The ones that bring you insight.

If you’re serious about scaling, stop kidding yourself. Measure the levers that actually move the dial: cash, profit, long-term value. Not “likes,” not “pipeline coverage,” not some fluffy engagement score no one can connect to money.

The Power of One: Small Changes, Big Impact

Meet The Power of One—a surprisingly powerful financial tool. Shift three levers by 1% each — price, COGS, volume — and boom: 19% more cash. Not theory. Maths. That’s the difference between limping along and building something fundable, valuable, maybe even saleable.

Devised by the team at Cash Flow Story (led by Joss Milner, Tim Lokot and Alan Miltz – the latter of whom is a former podcast guest), it’s used by over 20,000 companies in 90+ countries. At Monkhouse & Company, we use this tool with every client because it bridges a huge comprehension gap. Many CEOs struggle to see how small, incremental changes can have massive impact on cash.

Here’s how it works: we plug 10-15 key numbers from your financial statements into the software. In a workshop setting, we gather your leadership team and start playing “What if…?” What if we increase price by 1%? What if we collect payments one day sooner? With each tiny adjustment, the tool instantly shows the impact on your profit, cash flow and business valuation.

And that’s when the room goes quiet. Sceptics turn into wide-eyed converts. Because the maths doesn’t lie: bump sales 1% and cut COGS and overhead 1% each and you’re staring at a 19% cash uplift. Or a modest 1% price rise suddenly adds seven figures to what your company’s worth.

It’s not magic. It’s not tarot cards (though it does feel a bit like it at times). It’s your own bloody numbers finally telling you the truth.

The 7 Levers Every Business Should Track

Alan Miltz and the Cash Flow Story crew boiled it down to seven levers. Forget the noise — these are the only knobs and dials that actually tune the financial engine of your business. Touch anything else and you’re just fiddling with the air con. They are:

1. Price: A 1% increase can boost revenue without increasing costs.
2. Volume: Increasing sales volume by 1% can enhance profitability.
3. COGS (Cost of Goods Sold)/Direct Costs: A 1% reduction in direct costs improves profit margins.
4. Overheads: A 1% decrease in operating expenses directly impacts the bottom line.
5. Receivables: Accelerating payment times by one day can improve cash flow.
6. Inventory: Reducing inventory by one day’s worth can free up cash.
7. Payables: Extending payment terms by one day can increase cash on hand.

Those seven levers split neatly: the first four drive profitability, the last three drive working capital. Together, they are your cash flow story. Everything that touches cash is in there. Alan’s line is spot on: every decision your exec team makes should move one of these levers. If it doesn’t, it’s noise. Like arguing over the colour of the bike shed while the house burns down.

So we run the Power of One drill. Tiny tweaks, big truth bombs. We start by identifying which of the levers has the most potential for improvement – where will we get the most bang for our buck? We then enter some basic financial data into the Cash Flow Story software, so we can see the impact of the changes being suggested. 

 What if we put prices up 1%? Can we shave 1% off COGS without killing quality? What if debtors paid a day sooner? Each click shows the effect on cash, profit, valuation.

The beauty? You stop guessing. The numbers make the decision for you. And every company’s sensitivities are different. For some, chopping debtor days is a cash gusher. For others, a tiny price lift dwarfs everything else. Sometimes the results are downright counter-intuitive — like learning that cutting a single day from your inventory cycle is worth more than a 5% bump in volume. You’re weren’t scaling, you’re growing broke.

And that famous 19% uplift? That’s not some consultant’s fairy tale. Three 1% moves — sales up, COGS down, overheads down — and you’re looking at nearly a fifth more profit, with zero new customers. Just by tuning the dials you already own. It’s a surprisingly easy way to improve your cash flow, enhance your profitability, make better decisions and increase the value of your business.

Price: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Price. The nuclear lever. Of all seven, it’s the one that hits cash, profit and valuation the hardest. Yet the minute we mention it, the room fills with sharp intakes of breath. “We can’t do that — customers will flee!” Spare me.

Here’s the reality: in all my years coaching, I’ve never once seen a business lose volume from a sensible price rise. Not once. If what you sell has any real value, a tiny bump won’t send loyal customers sprinting to the competition. That fear lives only in your head.

Proof? One client started nudging up 1% a month. Two years later: no dip in sales, 35% uplift in gross margin. Another tested the waters with a 10% jump this year. Same story — no meltdown, just fatter profits.

So stop treating price like a live grenade. It’s the lever most of you are too timid to pull, and it’s the one that can add millions to your valuation overnight.

Here’s the thing about price: it doesn’t just fatten your margins today — it supercharges what your whole business is worth tomorrow. Investors and buyers love companies with strong, predictable profits. Add a bit more to the bottom line, and suddenly your valuation leaps.

I’ve seen founders stunned when they realise that a modest price rise doesn’t just pay for nicer coffee in the office — it can add millions to what their business would fetch if they ever wanted to sell.

That’s why I keep banging on about price, as in this podcast with Hermann Simon, the world’s number one price expert. It’s not tinkering. It’s transformational.

Yes, you still need to be smart. Explain the value. Bundle where it makes sense. Know what else your customers could buy. But for God’s sake, stop being paralysed by the idea of charging more.

Your competitors are just as terrified of raising prices. That’s your opening. Lead, don’t hide.

And even if you did lose a handful of customers, you’d still be better off. Most of the time, you won’t lose them anyway — they’ll grumble, shrug, and keep paying. Meanwhile, you’re pocketing more profit and building a stronger business.

Mind Your Cash (Don’t Grow Broke)

Growth is a greedy bastard. It eats cash for breakfast. Alan Miltz reckons about 40% of companies he’s seen actually make their cash position worse when sales go up. Think about that: more revenue, less money in the bank. That’s how you go bust while you’re “growing.”

Every extra quid of revenue needs working capital to fund it. Stock, wages, receivables. If each new pound ties up more than it brings in, you’re on a one-way trip to insolvency.

That’s why the working capital levers matter. Shorten debtor days. Nudge supplier terms. Shift inventory faster. The Power of One lets you model this: “What if customers paid us five days quicker? What if we held two days less stock?” Each tweak frees up cash.

We track what I call cash conversion efficiency: how much fuel it takes to generate each extra pound of revenue, and how long before that pound comes back. If you’re pouring in 50p of cash and waiting a year to see it again, don’t be shocked when growth feels like quicksand.

The cure? Measure cash ruthlessly. Forecast it weekly if you’re tight. Put your working capital metrics on the dashboard next to sales and profit. Because here’s the truth: your P&L can lie. Cash never does. Run out, and it’s game over.

Measure it. Manage it. Otherwise, you risk becoming another sad story of a business that scaled itself straight into the grave.

Build a business worth something

Focus on the right stuff — profit, cash, loyal customers, engaged staff — and you don’t just run a tighter ship, you build a business people would actually want to buy. Valuation boils down to a simple formula: profit times multiple. Get both moving in the right direction and suddenly your company’s worth a hell of a lot more.

Even if you never plan to sell, you should still act like you might. Being “exit-ready” doesn’t mean you’ve got the champagne chilled; it means your business is tight, profitable and fundable. Optionality is the prize. Want to raise money, buy a competitor, or just sleep at night knowing you could sell tomorrow if you wanted? That’s what exit-ready gives you.

Run your company like a buyer’s watching, and it’ll run better for you, too.

Other tools that actually tell you if your business is any good

Yes, the Power of One nails the money side. But a great business isn’t just profit and cash — it’s customers who stick around and a team that gives a damn. Ignore those, and you’ll still end up in the ditch. Here are a few tools we rate because they cut through the fluff.

Customer loyalty – Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Forget twenty-question surveys no one fills in. NPS asks one thing: “Would you recommend us?” That’s it. And it’s the single best predictor of growth I’ve ever seen.

We used it at Rackspace, IT Lab, Peer 1 — and every time, it helped us fix churn and accelerate growth. One client thought they were flying high with an NPS in the 40s, but when we drilled into their biggest accounts, it turned out those customers were down in the 20s. Without that insight, they’d have been blindsided.

Here’s the trick: NPS isn’t just a number to wave about in board decks. You treat it as a conversation starter. Promoters? Double down, get referrals. Detractors? Call them, fix the problem, win them back. The data tells you where to act — if you’ve got the guts to look.

Employee engagement – Gallup Q12, Friday Pulse

Happy staff = happy customers. End of story. But don’t kid yourself you can “just feel it.” Measure it.

I’m a fan of Friday Pulse — a quick weekly check-in on how your people are actually feeling. In rough patches, it gives leadership nowhere to hide: morale dipping? You’ll know by Friday, not at the next away day.

Gallup’s Q12 is another classic. The first question is brutal: “Do you know what’s expected of you at work?” If most of your people can’t answer “hell yes,” you’ve got a problem.

And then there’s talent quality. Count your A-Players — the top 5–10% who smash it and lift everyone else up. Your aim? 90% A-Players across the business. Harsh? Maybe. Transformational? Absolutely. A-Players don’t just outperform — they attract more A-Players. Raise the bar, and watch the culture shift.

Build your own dashboard (no, not the fluffy one)

The goal is an instrument panel that shows you everything that matters: cash, profit, customer love, employee engagement, operational excellence, strategic progress. No vanity crap. No “nice-to-know” trivia. Just the real levers.

With that in place, you’re flying with instruments instead of guessing through cloud cover.

Measure it or lose it

It’s frighteningly easy to lose sight of what really drives your business. Most CEOs do. Don’t be most CEOs.

Measure what matters — the seven financial levers, customer loyalty, team engagement. Raise your prices. Fix your working capital. Track NPS. Pulse-check your people.

Do that, and you’ll see wins sooner, spot trouble earlier, and rally your team around numbers that mean something. Skip it, and you’ll be that business still fumbling under the streetlamp while the real issues eat you alive.

Running a company’s like managing a football team. You need to know the score, not guess it. The Power of One and these other tools make sure you’ve got the scoreboard lit up. Use them, and you’ll not only scale — you’ll actually enjoy running the business you’ve built.

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Written by business coach and leadership coaching expert Dominic Monkhouse. You can order your free copy of his book, Mind Your F**king Business here.