The 3 numbers that tell you if the business is growing
Every Monday, log these three numbers. They map to the three engines of any service business: are we growing (new revenue), are we making money (gross margin), and are we executing (labor utilization). If all three are green, the business is healthy, even if everything else feels messy.
Log this week's numbers
Revenue this week
Total money earned or invoiced this week, one-off or recurring
$
Gross margin %
What you kept after direct costs: labor, materials, subs. If you charged $1,000 and spent $400 delivering it, your margin is 60%.
%
Labor utilization
Hours actually worked vs. hours scheduled this week
Choosing an existing client avoids accidentally splitting their history under a slightly different spelling.
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Healthy benchmarks: Gross margin 30–50% (below 25% signals a structural pricing or labor-cost problem) · Labor utilization is context-dependent: billable-hour businesses need tight tracking (solo 65–80%, teams 70–85%), project-based businesses have a wider healthy band (non-billable time is normal), product businesses care about fulfillment capacity not hours, recurring/retainer businesses are least hour-sensitive since revenue is decoupled from time · Revenue should not stall for multiple weeks in a row.
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