Last month, a client showed me her metrics spreadsheet. It had 14 tabs, dozens of columns, and she hadn’t updated it in over three months.
“I feel like I should be tracking all of this,” she confessed, “but it’s so overwhelming that I just… don’t.”
I told her something that visibly relieved her: “You don’t need 90% of these numbers.”
The data itself isn’t the overwhelming part. Data is just black and white. You either got 100 views on your sales page or you didn’t. The overwhelm comes from figuring out what to do with all those numbers.
The Metrics Paradox: Too Much or Nothing at All
When it comes to tracking business metrics, I’ve found most business owners fall into one of two camps:
- The Avoiders: They track nothing at all because they don’t know where to start
- The Overwhelmed: They try to track everything and get buried in spreadsheets they never look at
Both approaches miss the real power of metrics—helping you make better decisions about where to focus your time and energy.
I don’t believe in tracking every single thing in your business. It’s a waste of time, and you don’t need to know all the numbers. I’ve seen too many clients get so caught up in the data that it actually suppresses their creativity and spontaneity as business owners.
Start With Your Money-Making Metrics
The best place to start with metrics is to track what directly impacts your bottom line. Ask yourself two simple questions:
1. What do you actually want people to do?
Get specific. In my business, the number one thing I want someone to do when they land on my Instagram or website is book a Systems to Scale Audit. Why? It’s lower risk for clients, easier to sell, and has a high conversion rate to my done-for-you support services.
If you have five different offers, narrow your focus. What’s the ONE action that gives you the best ROI? What’s the starting point of your customer journey that leads to your highest-value work?
2. Where are you putting your time?
If you don’t track your time yet (download Toggl right now!), start thinking about where your working hours go each week. For me, besides client work, I spend significant time creating content—podcast episodes, Instagram posts, emails, LinkedIn.
Since I invest so much time here, I need to know: is this giving me a good ROI? When clients book with me, I always ask how they found me. Consistently, many mention my podcast or Instagram content. This tells me my time investment is working.
Three Questions to Build Your Metrics Framework
Once you’ve identified what you want people to do and where you’re spending your time, ask these three questions to build your metrics framework:
- Where are people coming from?
- Add “How did you find me?” to your contact forms
- Ask during discovery calls
- Track sources in your CRM or a simple spreadsheet
- Where are people taking action?
- Which Instagram posts generate the most DMs?
- Which emails get the most replies or clicks?
- Which content pieces lead to sales conversations?
- Where are people falling off?
- Is your webinar attendance low compared to signups?
- Are people viewing your sales page but not buying?
- Are discovery calls not converting to clients?
These gaps show you exactly what needs improvement, while the high-performing touchpoints show you what to double down on.
Creating Your Simple Tracking System
Start with a basic Google Sheet (that’s what I use for all my clients). Track the steps in your primary funnel:
For a formal funnel, track:
- Page views → Opt-ins
- Registrations → Live attendees
- Attendees → Sales page visits
- Page visits → Purchases
For a more organic approach, track:
- Content published → Engagement
- Engagement → Inquiries
- Inquiries → Sales conversations
- Conversations → Sales
When you know these numbers, you can set realistic goals. If 100 webinar signups historically generate 10 sales, and you want 20 sales next time, you know you need approximately 200 signups.
Your Quick Win: The One-Metric Focus
Don’t try to measure everything at once. Pick ONE funnel in your business and track just those steps for the next 30 days.
Start with where you’re making money now. Focus on refining and optimizing that before adding complexity.
For example, if you know Instagram is driving most of your inquiries, track:
- How many posts you publish weekly
- Engagement on those posts
- DMs or inquiries generated
- Conversion to calls or sales
Just these four data points can reveal powerful insights about your content strategy.
Moving Forward With Confidence
Once you have your baseline metrics for your primary funnel, you can:
- Set realistic goals based on actual data
- Identify specific parts of your funnel to improve
- Test different approaches and measure the impact
- Make decisions about where to invest more time or resources
Remember: the goal of tracking metrics isn’t to have perfect spreadsheets—it’s to make better business decisions that lead to growth.
Start small. Start simple. The clarity you gain will be worth far more than any fancy dashboard.
Ready to get started? I’ve created a free metrics tracking template—the exact one I use with my operations clients. It has multiple tabs for different tracking needs, but remember: just start with one!
Download the free metrics tracking template → FREE METRICS TEMPLATE (BE SURE TO MAKE A COPY)
Have questions about which metrics you should track in your business? My DMs are always open on Instagram @systemswithsam
Connect with Sam:
- Website: https://www.systemswithsam.com/services
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/systemswithsam/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwhiz/
