The weekly growth scorecard: seven numbers on one page

Why one page, every week

Long monthly reports fail for two reasons. They arrive too late to fix anything, and they're too long for a busy owner to read. A one-page weekly scorecard solves both: problems surface within days, and the owner can read it in five minutes between jobs.

The scorecard also changes behaviour. When every task has an owner and a due date printed on the page, slippage becomes visible, and visible slippage tends to shrink.

The seven numbers

Keep it to seven. More than that and nobody reads it.

Why the lead log, not the platforms

Ads platforms and analytics tools count clicks, form starts and button taps, and each tool counts differently. The lead log counts real people who actually contacted you. When the two disagree, trust the lead log, and investigate the gap.

Number 6 needs you

Won work is the number that connects marketing to revenue, and only you can supply it. A simple weekly or monthly list of won jobs with the customer's name or reference lets the team match them to the lead log. Owners who share it get far better decisions.

The page layout

Lay out the page in four blocks, top to bottom:

1. Headline. One sentence: "Enquiries up 12% on the four-week trend; paid search cost per enquiry rose; one task slipped."
2. The seven numbers, this week and four-week trend, with a simple up, down or flat marker.
3. Shipped and slipped. A short list of tasks: owner, what shipped, what slipped and why.
4. One decision needed. The single question the owner must answer this week, such as approving a budget shift or confirming a new service area.

If the owner reads only the headline and the decision, the scorecard has still done its job.

A worked example

Here's how the numbers might look for an illustrative Ontario service business:

The headline writes itself: enquiries are rising and response times have halved, but paid costs went up. The decision might be: "Pause the Hamilton ad group, which produced most of the cost increase, and move its budget to Burlington, where cost per enquiry is lowest?" That's a five-minute decision with clear evidence.

The 20-minute weekly check-in

Run a short call around the scorecard. A fixed agenda keeps it short:

1. Headline and decision (5 minutes). Make the decision.
2. Anything red (5 minutes). A number moving the wrong way or a slipped task: what happened and what's the fix?
3. Next week's priorities (5 minutes). Confirm or change.
4. What the team needs from you (5 minutes). Photos, approvals, access, information.

Don't use the check-in to review every task. If it's on the page and green, skip it.

How scorecards mislead

Watch for these traps:

• Counting clicks as enquiries. A tap on a phone number isn't a conversation. Use the lead log.
• Celebrating a single week. Weekly numbers are noisy. Check the four-week trend before reacting.
• Ignoring seasonality. Compare against the same period last year where you can.
• Vanity numbers. Followers, impressions and page views can rise while enquiries fall. Keep them off the main page.
• Unrecorded changes. If someone changed the website, ads or hours, note it on the scorecard. Otherwise you'll never know why a number moved.
• Missing won-work data. Without it, you optimise for enquiries that may never buy.

Adapting the scorecard to your business

The seven numbers suit most service and B2B businesses, but adjust the details:

• Long sales cycles. If deals take months, add a line for open proposals and their total value, and judge won work on a rolling quarter.
• Several locations. Give each location its own row for enquiries and response time, so one strong branch doesn't hide a weak one.
• Seasonal businesses. Add last year's figure for the same week beside this week's, so a seasonal drop isn't mistaken for a failure.
• Very small volumes. If you get five enquiries a week, look at monthly totals for decisions and use the weekly page mainly for tasks shipped and response times.

Keep the page to one page even after adapting it. If something new needs to go on, something else should come off.

Setting it up this week

1. Create a lead log with columns for date, time, source, response time, outcome and value.
2. Ask whoever answers enquiries to fill it in, every time.
3. Build a one-page scorecard with the seven numbers and four blocks above.
4. Book a recurring 20-minute Friday or Monday check-in.
5. Run it for four weeks before changing the format.

That's the same scorecard our clients receive in the embedded growth team. If you'd like a team to run it for you, see pricing or read how we handle lead follow-up, which feeds numbers 4 and 5.