Weekly scorecard

Definition

The short list of numbers a new owner reads every single week.

Why It Matters

In the first hundred days the temptation is to watch everything, which is the same as watching nothing. A scorecard is five to fifteen numbers that lead the result instead of reporting it, cash in the bank, jobs sold, calls booked, days to invoice, each owned by one person and each with a number to beat. It matters at a handover because the seller ran the business on numbers that were in their head, and the first version of the scorecard is usually the transcript of that.

In numbers: Eight numbers, one owner each: $40,000 of cash at bank against a $25,000 floor, jobs sold, calls booked, quotes out, days to invoice, gross margin, overdue receivables and safety incidents. Under fifteen minutes every Monday.