You built the plan. It is color coded, it has a revenue target, and you have not opened it since January. Nothing in your week was built to carry it, and that is fixable.

In this solo episode, Holly shares the seven numbers she tracks every month and the 90-day approach that keeps a plan alive after the excitement wears off.

How to track your business numbers so your plan actually gets done

Most business plans stall by March because nothing in the week holds them up. Holly ran corporate strategy for about 22 years before she built a seven-figure business in part-time hours, and she says this is not a discipline problem. A plan with no accountability behind it loses to a regular Tuesday: client calls, a launch that needs copy, a dentist appointment, a broken website. In this episode she explains why a 90-day plan works better than a 12-month one and how to build a monthly scorecard that takes about four minutes.

The scorecard tracks seven numbers: new sales committed, cash received, expenses, offers sold by name, connections, content published against what you planned, and email list size, growth, and open rate. Holly explains why revenue is the least useful number to check every week, and why five connections a week predicts most of what happens next. She also walks through how Collective Co-op members run the scorecard together, with weekly calls, Slack support, and a one-on-one number review each quarter.

Tune in to hear:

• Why plans stall by March, and why it has nothing to do with laziness
• Why a regular Tuesday beats a color-coded plan when nothing on your calendar holds you to it
• Why a 90-day plan works better than a 12-month plan
• Lagging and leading numbers in plain language
• New sales committed versus cash received, and why they never match when you offer payment plans
• Why a $15,000 month can clear far less once expenses come out
• How to track offers by name so you can see which one is actually selling
• The connections number: five a week, 20 a month
• Content published versus content planned, and how to shrink a plan to fit your life
• Email list size, growth, and open rate, and why 71% of Holly's sales come from email
• What a month looks like inside the Collective Co-op: weekly calls, Slack support, and a one-on-one review each quarter
• The one question to answer before you close your laptop at your planning day

Planning season is about to start, and everyone is going to sell you a prettier document. In this episode I'm making the case that the December planning day is neither the reason your year works nor the reason it doesn't, walking through the seven numbers we track every week inside The Collective Co-Op (only three of them have a dollar sign), and reading a real member scorecard on air so you can hear what those numbers say when they sit next to each other. The January 2027 waitlist is open now at hollymariehaynes.com/coop.

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Frequently asked questions

What numbers should I track every month in my business?

Holly recommends seven: new sales committed, cash received, expenses, offers sold by name, connections, content published against what you planned, and email list size, growth, and open rate. Together they take about four minutes to pull each month. Revenue alone tells you what already happened, so the other numbers show you whether next month's revenue is on its way. The goal is to look at the scorecard, find the gaps, and decide what to fix.

What is the difference between new sales committed and cash received?

New sales committed is what people said yes to this month, whether or not the money has landed. Cash received is the money that actually hit your account. If you offer payment plans, these two numbers will never match, because a sale today can pay out over three months. Holly says many clients track only one of them, call it revenue, and then wonder why their bank account disagrees with the celebration.

How many connections should I make each week?

Holly recommends five connections a week, which adds up to 20 a month. A connection is a real conversation with one real person, like a follow-up with a lead who went quiet, a message to a past client, or a note to someone whose audience overlaps with yours. It does not have to be a sales call, and a post or a story does not count. That is roughly one hour a week, and Holly says it predicts more about your revenue than almost any other number.

Are leading and lagging numbers different?

Yes. Lagging numbers tell you the outcome, like revenue and cash received. Leading numbers tell you whether the outcome is coming, like the number of connections you made this week. Holly wants both on one page because revenue is a receipt for work you did in earlier months. If it is the only number you watch, you find the problem about 60 days late and spend your time recovering instead of fixing it.

Curious what is actually standing between you and consistent income in your business? Take the free 2-minute quiz and find out where the gap is. hollymariehaynes.com/quiz 💛