The Executive Brief: Calm Systems for Serious SMEs

SERIES 7: Measure What Matters

Principle: Identify the key metrics that actually drive your business forward — and focus on those relentlessly. Ignore vanity metrics.

Most SMEs don’t have a “lack of effort” problem. They have a lack of signal.

Meaning: you’re doing plenty of work… but you can’t confidently answer questions like:

• Are we actually growing?
• Is this month better than last month?
• Which channel is producing real customers (not just activity)?
• Are we getting more efficient — or slowly getting more expensive?
• What should we double down on… and what should we stop?

That’s why “Measure What Matters” is one of the calmest decisions a business can make. It gives you something most SMEs rarely get: a clear scorecard.

(Image: A clean, focused dashboard showing only a few KPIs with simple trend lines and weekly comparisons)

Why This Matters (And Why Most SMEs Get It Wrong)

Data-led decisions usually beat gut-driven decisions over the long term — but there’s a problem: most businesses don’t have a data problem. They have a too much data, not enough clarity problem.

You don’t need a dashboard with 40 charts. You need 3–5 numbers that tell you the truth about how the business is performing.

The most dangerous trap is when a team is “measuring things” but still making decisions based on feeling. That’s usually because the numbers they’re tracking are easy to collect… but not truly connected to outcomes.

Classic examples of vanity metrics include:

• Social media likes (without conversion)
• Website traffic (without qualified leads)
• Email opens (without replies or booked calls)
• “Leads generated” (without lead quality or close rate)

Vanity metrics aren’t useless — they’re just not reliable indicators of business health on their own. They can make you feel busy. They can even make you feel successful. But they don’t always tell you whether you’re building something sustainable.

The Real Question: “What Moves the Needle Here?”

Every SME is different, but the best metrics usually share one trait: they force clarity and drive decisions.

Here are a few examples of “needle-moving” metrics across common SME models:

• Service businesses: booked calls, close rate, average order value, delivery capacity, retention
• Local businesses: enquiry volume, conversion rate, repeat customer rate, gross margin
• SaaS SMEs: MRR, churn rate, CAC, conversion %, payback period
• Agencies: utilisation rate, profit per client, project overrun rate, average time-to-invoice

The goal isn’t to copy someone else’s KPI list. The goal is to choose metrics that tell you, quickly: Are we winning or losing this week?

Application: Pick 3–5 KPIs You Can Actually Use

A simple but effective rule: If a metric doesn’t change what you do, it doesn’t deserve space on your dashboard.

Start by choosing 3–5 core KPIs that match your current stage:

• Early stage: lead flow, conversion rate, cash runway, delivery capacity
• Growth stage: CAC, retention, gross margin, operational bottlenecks
• Scaling stage: forecasting accuracy, pipeline coverage, profitability by segment

For example, a SaaS SME might track:

• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
• Churn Rate
• Lead-to-Customer Conversion %
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• Support Volume per Active Customer (a hidden scaling metric)

Then set a simple rhythm:

• Weekly review: quick performance check + decisions
• Monthly review: trend analysis + strategy adjustment

And most importantly: make them visible. Not hidden in a spreadsheet no one opens. Put them somewhere the business can actually see them.

(Image: A calm “focus on the essentials” visual showing core KPIs standing out while noisy vanity charts fade away)

A Simple Filter For Every New Idea

Here’s a practical habit that makes this principle real:

Before you start any new initiative, ask:
“How will this impact one of our core metrics?”

If the answer is unclear, that doesn’t mean the initiative is “bad”. It just means you may be about to spend time on something that feels productive… without moving the business forward.

This is especially useful for marketing work, because marketing can generate endless activity: posts, campaigns, tweaks, tests, landing pages, lead magnets, ads.

The question isn’t “can we do this?” The question is: does it change the score?

WAi Forward in Action: Connecting Your Metrics to Real Work

This is where most SMEs get stuck: they can measure performance, but the actions that follow are inconsistent.

At WAi Forward, the goal is to connect your metrics to your workflows so the business responds faster and more calmly. Not through panic. Through structure.

For example:

• If your Lead-to-Customer conversion % drops, that might trigger a review of your follow-up workflow or messaging.
• If your pipeline volume falls below target coverage, you might trigger a consistent content run for lead generation.
• If your gross margin shrinks, you might investigate pricing, delivery time, or supplier costs.

When your numbers are connected to your system, you stop relying on memory and motivation. You start operating like a business that can scale.

Rule: SMART Metrics (But Make It Practical)

A useful rule for deciding whether a metric belongs in your core set:

Each KPI should be Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

A simple example:

• Weak KPI: “Website traffic”
• Strong KPI: “Qualified leads generated from website content in the last 30 days”

The difference is that the stronger KPI points to an action. If it drops, you know exactly what to review: your content, targeting, CTA clarity, offers, or lead capture flow.

Roundtable Question: What Do You Actually Track?

Here’s the real discussion:

If you had to pick just 3 KPIs to run your business from… what would they be?

And be honest — are you tracking them because they’re genuinely useful… or because they’re just easy to measure?

The calmest SMEs aren’t calm because they’re “less busy”. They’re calm because they’ve built a system that tells them what matters — and helps them act on it consistently.