The One Number That Will Transform Your Business This Year
Business owners are either unclear on the data they track or tracking nothing at all.
Both are killing momentum.
I've seen this play out with countless clients over the last few years, and the solution is simpler than most think.
The solution? Find your North Star metric—the ONE number that drives everything else in your business.
When you get this right, your meetings get sharper, your quarterly planning gets clearer, and everyone knows exactly what winning looks like—and how they contribute to it.
I've seen this not only transform businesses, but the lives of their owners. After thousands of hours developing strategy with clients, I can confirm: the amount of clarity, peace, and stress reduction that starts to snowball from this process is remarkable.
The Owner Unclear on the Data that Matters
I started working with a business owner a couple of years back who built a business generating less than $500K in annual revenue. When we first sat down, she showed me her metrics: revenue, expenses, website traffic, social media engagement, etc.
"So what number is most important to your business?" I asked.
She paused. "…revenue, I guess?"
That's when I knew we had work to do.
Here's the thing: revenue is a lagging indicator that you don’t have direct control over. It tells you what already happened, not what you need to do today to make tomorrow better. It's the scoreboard, not the game plan.
We spent the next few weeks digging through the data. Looking at what actually drove revenue in her business model. What she could influence through daily actions. What would tell us if she was building something sustainable, not just making quick sales.
We landed on a North Star: total qualified leads.
Everything clicked.
She realized that when qualified leads went up, everything else followed. More leads meant more proposals. More proposals meant more closed deals. More closed deals meant more revenue. And qualified leads were something she could actually influence every single day through her outreach to a known target market, referral relationships, and a refined sales pipeline.
Once she had clarity on this ONE number, she optimized everything around it. Her sales strategy. Her team structure. Her business model.
Less than two years later, she’s built a 7-figure business.
Not because she worked harder (in fact she spends less time working IN the business than ever), but because she worked on what mattered most.
The Owner Who Found His Connector
Then there's another client who runs a service-based business. When we started working together, he was a solopreneur doing everything himself—sales, delivery, operations, admin. He was good at what he did, but he was maxed out.
His initial instinct was to track the number of clients served. A standard metric.
But when we dug deeper into his business model, we discovered something more specific: his business thrived based on the strength of his relationships with "connectors"—selling agents and referral partners who sent him leads.
The more of those relationships he had, and the more developed those relationships were, the better his business performed. These weren't just leads. They were consistent, high-quality referral sources that trusted him and kept sending work his way.
So we made that his North Star: active connector relationships.
He stopped trying to do everything and started focusing on what actually mattered—building and nurturing those key relationships. Once he had clarity on this, he could delegate the rest.
Within 18 months, he added six team members to his business. His revenue more than doubled. Profitability climbed. And he got his life back.
All because he narrowed in on the one thing that made everything else possible.
The Mistake Most Owners Make
Focusing on just ONE number may feel too narrow. What about everything else that matters in the business? I get it. It feels risky to put all your focus on a single metric.
But here's the truth: your North Star isn't the ONLY thing you measure. It's the thing you OPTIMIZE for.
Think of it this way. Your North Star metric is the foundation. Everything else in your business needs to align with it for it to work.
Operations has to support it.
Sales and marketing have to feed it.
Finance has to sustain it.
When all three of those pillars—operations, sales and marketing, and finance—are firing at the highest level in service of your North Star, that's when exponential growth happens.
Your North Star gives you the clarity to know where to focus. It tells you what to say yes to and what to say no to. It guides your hiring decisions, your investment decisions, your strategic decisions.
It's not limiting. It's liberating.
What Happens When You Get This Right
After thousands of hours working with business owners, I've discovered a pattern.
When someone identifies their true North Star metric, something shifts. The stress starts to drop. The decision-making gets easier. The team aligns. The business starts to feel less like chaos and more like progress.
Here's what I see happen:
Clarity replaces confusion. Instead of juggling 15 priorities, you know what actually moves the needle.
Peace replaces anxiety. You're not second-guessing every decision because you have a filter for what matters.
Momentum replaces stagnation. You're no longer busy—you're building.
And it snowballs. The more you focus on your North Star, the more everything else falls into place. Your operations get tighter. Your sales process gets sharper. Your team gets aligned. And your business starts to scale in a way that feels sustainable instead of exhausting.
How to Find Your North Star Metric
Look at what drives revenue in your business (not just measures it). Ask the question: what has to happen BEFORE revenue shows up? That's your starting point.
Identify what you can actually influence through daily actions. Your North Star needs to be something you can move. If you can't control it or influence it directly, it's not your North Star.
Choose something that tells you if you're building a sustainable business, not just making quick sales. A good North Star reflects the health of your business model, not just short-term wins.
Make sure it's simple enough that everyone on your team understands it. If your team can't explain it in one sentence, it's too complicated.
Your North Star metric must connect directly to revenue AND reflect the health of your business model.
For some businesses, it's qualified leads.
For others, it's client retention rate or average project value.
For a service business, it could be active referral partnerships.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on YOUR business model and what drives YOUR growth engine.
Your Next Step
Take 30 minutes and answer this question: "If I could only improve ONE number in my business over the next 90 days, what would create the most momentum?"
Write it down. Test it against the framework above. See if it holds up. If you're not sure, or if you find yourself stuck between multiple metrics, that's a sign you need outside perspective. Sometimes it takes one conversation to get clarity. Sometimes it takes a few weeks of digging. But once you have it, everything changes.
If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start building with focus, let's talk.
Because the most successful businesses aren't the ones tracking everything, or ignoring the data.
They're the ones that know exactly what matters—and refuse to get distracted by anything else.