Burn the Spreadsheet! Tracking Metrics Won’t Grow Your Business with Amy Traugh
- Amy Traugh
- 12 minutes ago
- 10 min read
🎧 The Metrics Maven: Data Driven Business Growth Strategy for Solopreneurs is streaming on all platforms. Listen here. Also streaming on YouTube.
Burn the Spreadsheet! Why Tracking Metrics Alone Won’t Grow Your Business
Tracking your business metrics alone won’t grow your business. While data is essential, collecting it without action keeps you stuck.
The Tracking Trap
Many solopreneurs fall into the tracking trap. Updating dashboards, color-coding spreadsheets, or reviewing numbers weekly creates an illusion of control—but it doesn’t drive results. Metrics reflect reality; they don’t create it.
Spreadsheets Are Tools, Not Strategies
Think of a fitness tracker. It can monitor steps, sleep, and heart rate, but if you don’t act on the data, nothing changes. Business metrics work the same way. Action, interpretation, and adjustment are what turn numbers into growth.
The Feedback Loop for Business Growth
Use this simple 5-step feedback loop:
Action – Implement a launch, marketing approach, pricing change, or new offer.
Measurement – Track metrics tied to your specific action.
Interpretation – Look for patterns and trends over time.
Decision – Decide what the numbers indicate.
Adjustment – Make a small, intentional change and repeat.
Metrics without decisions are just decoration.
Digging Deeper: Revenue and Metrics
Revenue dips or spikes aren’t insights—they are signals. Ask deeper questions about leads, conversions, traffic, and operational changes. Each metric can indicate a different adjustment, emphasizing the need for focused data interpretation.
Avoid Overcomplication
Tracking too many metrics or avoiding them entirely leads to overwhelm and confusion. Focus on the key metrics that guide decisions. More data is not better—clarity is.
Use Metrics as a Guide, Not a Report Card
Spreadsheets are like maps: they show you where you are, highlight patterns, and identify gaps. But they won’t move you forward. Growth happens when you interpret data, make decisions, and take intentional actions.
Treat Your Business Like an Experiment
Use your metrics to test, refine, and adjust. Stop attaching emotions to outcomes. Observe, iterate, and repeat. Your spreadsheet should guide your decisions, not control them.
Conclusion: Metrics Are a Starting Point
The spreadsheet is not the strategy. Your willingness to use data to make actionable decisions drives growth. Track fewer metrics, focus on key indicators, make decisions, and take action. This turns metrics from a time-consuming task into a tool for sustainable business growth.
If this topic resonated with you, this is the kind of work I guide clients through in my signature program, Metrics Mastery. Until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
If you're ready to finally ditch the data drama and create a simple, repeatable process for growth, this is exactly what we do inside Metrics Mastery.
Get started for free at amytraugh.com and let’s build a business that’s backed by strategy, not stress.
Until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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Transcript for Episode 448. Burn the Spreadsheet! Tracking Metrics Won’t Grow Your Business
@0:00 - Amy Traugh (Amy Traugh)
So tracking your metrics will not grow your business. Yep, you heard me right. Tracking your metrics will not grow your business.
But I want you to hear me out for a minute because no, I haven't completely lost my mind. The vast majority of business owners that I work with know that they need to track their metrics.
However, when it comes to metrics, a lot of the conversations that I hear with peers and people in the online space about data, these conversations stop at the spreadsheet.
Track this, monitor that, create a dashboard, watch your numbers weekly. It's almost as if the simple act of collecting data is what magically will fix inconsistent sales, burnout, and overwhelm.
But here's the thing. The spreadsheet itself is not the strategy. It's just the starting point. And today, I am...
Giving you permission to burn the spreadsheet as we dig into why these beliefs are so common, why collecting data is keeping you frustrated, and what actually has to happen in order for you to use your metrics to grow your business.
So let's start out by digging into why so many capable business owners get caught up in what I like to call the tracking trap.
Well, tracking your numbers, tracking all this data, it feels productive. Why? Well, it gives you something concrete to do when you want to feel more in control of your business.
You update your numbers. You might create this like really pretty spreadsheet. Maybe you build a dashboard and you have that sense of relief that goes, oh, I did something, right?
I'm paying attention. But attention without action doesn't lead to business growth. Data is neutral. Remember, it's not the data or the metrics that are solving the problems.
It doesn't magically fix gaps. It doesn't make decisions for you. It's simply reflecting the reality of what's already happened.
It's kind of like a mirror. I want you to think about the fitness tracker on your Apple Watch. What does it do?
It can track your steps, your heart rate, your calories burned, your sleep quality, stand up, sit down, breathe, move.
That little thing gets super bossy and it can give you numbers all day long and it's super easy to check.
Now imagine someone who checks their tracker obsessively. They know exactly how many steps they took yesterday. They notice when their heart rate is higher than usual.
They even track their sleep every single night, but they never change their behavior. If they're trying to lose weight, they're not walking more when they notice that they're not getting their steps in.
They're not actually trying to improve their sleep habits. They're not changing the way that they eat. And so flash forward six months, nothing's different.
Their energy is the same. Their strength is the same. Their weight is the same. But it wasn't the tracker that was the problem.
All they did was collect data and expect different results. The missing piece here was the decision. A fitness tracker only works when someone looks at the data and says, okay, well, based off of this, I'm going to do something differently today.
And this is how data works in your business. Data is only useful when it leads to a decision. A decision leads to an adjustment.
And that adjustment is what creates business growth. And this is exactly where the concept of a feedback loop comes into play.
Because this is what will turn data into intentional and strategic growth. I want you to grab a pen, pause this episode, grab your notebook, grab a pen, and write this out.
Because we're going to walk through this step by step. There's five steps. And they're actually... It's actually super simple.
The first step is action. You implement something in your business, whether it be a launch, a new marketing approach, a price change, or testing a new offer.
Step two, measurement. You're tracking metrics that directly reflect the action you just took. Now, the thing here is you want to keep it simple, focusing on only a few key indicators.
Step three, interpretation. Look at those numbers. We're looking for trends, patterns, signals over time. We're not looking at one day's worth of data.
No, we want to look at the overall trend. And ask yourself, okay, why did certain results appear? And what are these numbers trying to tell me about what's working or not working?
We move to step four. Step is the... Decision. Based on that decision, you make a choice. This is the most important part.
Because without a decision, data is just decoration. It's just more noise. And step five, adjust. You go back up and act on the decision, making a small shift and start the loop over again.
That's all it is. Action, measurement, interpretation, decision, and adjustment. Each time you do this, you refine. You help your business respond in real time to what is actually happening.
What is objectively happening within your business. And what you get is we turn those metrics into understanding. Understanding into action.
Action into results. But without this loop, you're just. Staring at numbers, hoping that growth is magically going to happen.
But with it, your business becomes self-correcting, responsive, and focused on results. And this is where I see people get stuck a lot.
They say things like, oh my gosh, my revenue was down last month. And then they stop there. But the revenue dip isn't the insight.
This is the signal. The real questions come when you get curious and dig in deeper. Well, was my lead volume down?
Did my conversion rates drop? Was traffic consistent, but my sales were lagging? Did I change something operationally that impacted capacity on the back end?
Each answer actually will point you towards a different decision. So for example, if your lead's dropped, the adjustment you make might be focused on visibility.
Or if conversions dropped, the adjustment could be on message. Or if traffic stayed steady, but your sales fell, maybe the adjustment is in your positioning or follow-up.
It's the same metrics, but completely different actions depending on the context. And this is exactly why tracking your numbers can feel really frustrating.
Most business owners are staring at their data without any kind of framework for interpretation. They know that something's off, but they don't know what lever to pull.
So instead of making these decisions, they do one of two things. They keep tracking more metrics, more tabs, more spreadsheets, more dashboards.
Or they go the opposite way and completely avoid their metrics because nothing's changing. I want you to think of spreadsheets like a map for a second.
A map shows you where you are. It shows you roads, landmarks, obstacles, and it can highlight potential shortcuts. But the map...
itself doesn't actually move you towards your destination. It doesn't magically map it out for you or make adjustments when you hit traffic.
Your business works the same way. The spreadsheet can help you organize your data and show you where some of these patterns and gaps are.
It can point to the leaks and where these opportunities are. But if you're just staring at it and not actually taking action, you're not going to move anywhere.
And so many business owners are overcomplicating this. They're layering all of these things on top of what they're already doing within their business, believing that more, more data, more work, all of this will give them better decisions.
And they get that sense of productivity because again, they feel in control. They have this illusion of control. But if you're not making decisions, it's just that.
It's just an illusion. And what happens when that overcomplication silently Like creeps in, analysis paralysis, confusion, frustration, even a growing sense of dread and resentment that data is just this other thing of on this endless list of things to do.
And it's overwhelming instead of being frustrated. Remember, data only becomes useful when it leads to a decision because a decision leads to an adjustment and adjustment is what drives growth.
Too much data or data without focus actually buries all of these wonderful opportunities underneath a mountain of numbers. For example, let's put this into play.
Let's go back to Thomas Edison, member light bulb guy. He did not invent the light bulb on his first try, even his hundredth.
In fact, he tested thousands of different materials for filaments and recorded every single experiment he did meticulously. despite that delay andaba.
Dent. Let's All He knew what worked, what failed, and why. But the data didn't create success. His breakthrough came from interpretation and adjustment.
He analyzed the patterns and made decisions about what to test next and adjusted his approach. Each failure wasn't actually failure.
It was just information guiding his next action. And without those decisions and adjustments, all of the data he gathered would have been useless.
And Edison's journey shows the same principle as business metrics. Tracking your metrics is just the starting point. Real progress comes in when you interpret the data, make a decision, and take action.
That's the feedback loop. The spreadsheet is just a tool. It is not a strategy and overcomplicating it. It makes it a huge distraction, not a guide.
But growth is never found in complexity alone. It is found in simple, sustainable actions based off of a few key metrics.
Strategy doesn't come from numbers alone. It comes from interpretation. You have to look at the data and get super curious.
Only then is when you make a decision. And that decision is what leads to growth. And when you repeat this, your spreadsheet becomes a foundation for growth and stops being just a list of numbers, this time suck, this soul sucking task on an endless list of things to do.
And without this mindset, a spreadsheet is a waste of time. It's not a guide, it's not a feedback loop, it's not a growth engine, but the magic really happens when you connect the dots between the numbers and the choices you're willing to make.
The spreadsheet is the start, but your actions are the strategy. When you start trading your business like an experiment, everything will shift for you.
You will no longer be emotionally attached to every outcome. Instead, you're observing, you're testing, you're refining, you're trying, you're deciding what to do next.
And this is the feedback loop in action. And this is where you regain control and have your metrics stop feeling overwhelming.
They stop becoming this report card and start becoming your guide. You're not tracking to prove anything to anyone. One, you should be tracking your metrics to learn.
And if you have been tracking. Tracking your metrics diligently and nothing has felt different. It's not failure. It just means that the decision and adjustment step is missing.
You have to implement. The spreadsheet you created was never meant to carry the weight of your growth. Your willingness to use data to make strategic decisions in your business is where everything changes.
If this episode resonated with you, this is exactly what I love helping clients with one-on-one and inside my signature program, Metrics Mastery.
You can get started for free over at amytraugh.com. The link is in the show notes. And until next time, stop guessing and start growing.
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