I’ve long believed that too many founder-led businesses fall into the trap of measuring success using the wrong metrics. It’s easy to see why: most business commentary centres around large, shareholder-owned companies, and we’re taught that this is what “business” looks like. So we inherit their metrics: revenue, growth, headcount, EBITDA… and use them as our own yardstick. But it’s nonsense. Very few of us started a business to overwork ourselves to make strangers rich. So why do we measure our success as if we did?
What really matters to you?
When I asked a group of agency founders why they started their businesses, only one of the most common reasons was purely financial. The rest were far more human. Their answers fell into ten loose themes:
- Earnings potential (the financial one)
- Life balance
- The calling
- Security
- Autonomy
- Legacy
- Fulfilment
- Validation
- Opportunity
- Love of the craft
(I’ve broken these down in this LinkedIn post – possibly my only LinkedIn carousel.)
Most of us are chasing a mix of these. Getting that mix right gives us a business we love to run and a life we actually enjoy. But too often, we sacrifice those outcomes quietly, incrementally, in pursuit of someone else’s scoreboard.
What else should we measure?
It depends – and that’s the point. The beauty of running a founder-led business is that you get to define what success looks like. Without shareholders or quarterly earnings calls breathing down your neck, your business can be a vehicle for the life you want. That only works, though, if you’re clear on what that life is and you’re actually tracking progress towards it.
A good place to start is by going back to why you started your business and writing what I call a Founder Statement: a short paragraph that captures what you were aiming to achieve at the outset. From there, ask: what could you measure that would show you’re on track?
Here are a few examples:
Founder Statement: “I started my agency to have more time for personal pursuits and family.”
Metrics: Track the average number of personal days taken per quarter, employee satisfaction with flexible working arrangements, and the percentage of projects completed within standard working hours.
Founder Statement: “I wanted my agency to have a lasting impact on our community and industry.”
Metrics: Number of community initiatives or pro bono projects completed, industry awards or recognitions received, and the number of speaking engagements or thought leadership pieces published.
Founder Statement: “I wanted to create a workplace where employees felt truly valued and engaged.”
Metrics: Employee engagement scores, retention rates, and internal promotion rates. You could also measure participation in professional development programs or employee NPS (Net Promoter Score).
You can tailor this approach to any goal: freedom, mastery, balance, legacy etc. Whatever matters most to you. That’s the real metric of success: building the business you actually wanted in the first place.
Measuring these things isn’t just feel-good fluff. Agencies that track what matters to their founders tend to make better decisions, stay more focused, and build teams that stick around. Clients notice it too. When your business is aligned to your values, people can tell, and that’s often what sets you apart.
So, abandon traditional metrics?
Not at all. Financial metrics still matter. Hugely. Any agency needs a solid handle on its numbers to make good decisions. Profit gives you options. Cashflow gives you peace of mind. Revenue trends can help spot problems early. I’m definitely not saying ditch the spreadsheet. I love a spreadsheet!
What I am saying is “Let’s add to it”.
Most financial metrics are a means to an end, not the end itself. They keep the business alive, but they don’t tell you if it’s working for you. They’re the engine temperature and fuel gauge not the sat nav. So yes, track meaningful financials such as your revenue, margin, and runway. But don’t let those numbers crowd out the things that made you start this business in the first place. If your goal is autonomy, creative freedom, or building something that matters then make sure you’re tracking that, too.
You don’t need a fancy dashboard to do this. Just get clear on what you wanted this business to give you, and start tracking whether it’s doing that. A business that hits its financial targets but misses the founder’s goals isn’t successful; it’s just busy.
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