What 75 Ecommerce Owners Just Told Me About Their Businesses

I've been looking at the results from our Ecommerce Business Performance Assessment, and it's given me a reality check.

Most ecommerce businesses are running on duct tape and hope.

During this assessment, we look at six critical areas of business performance

• Strategic Planning

• Financial Systems & Data

• Cash Flow

• Financial Forecasting

• Operations

• Exit Planning

And across the board, the results show the same thing.

You're doing enough to keep the lights on, but it's not enough to actually support your business or yourself, personally.

So let's break down the numbers in each section, and what they mean.

Strategic Planning

Only 5% have real, measurable plans. Plans that have been communicated to the rest of the team and goals have been structured to achieve those plans.

The rest of you (95%) are either winging it completely or have some goals written down somewhere that you look at... occasionally.

Financial Systems & Data

21% of ecom business owners are actually using their financial data to make decisions.

The rest have the accounting software to keep the IRS happy and have numbers to show.

Cash Flow

7% have solid cash reserves and know where their money is going.

The other 93% are either scrambling or barely squeezing by, just one bad month away from closing the doors.

Financial Forecasting

Only 5% actually understand their cash position and what it will look like next quarter.

Most everyone else is guessing, hoping, or just not thinking about it at all.

Operations

13% of ecom owners have their inventory and systems dialed in.

If you're still trying to do it old-school, using spreadsheets or clunky systems that don't specialize in inventory and eat up hours every week, it's time to do something different.

Exit Planning

This one is what scares me most.

Only 4% of you have created any sort of plan for building a business you could actually sell.

That means 96% of you are building businesses that won't allow you a smooth exit if and when you need to step out.

See the pattern?

In every single category, fewer than 1 in 4 of you are operating at a high level.

Most of you are stuck in the middle, doing okay, but not excelling.

And in some areas, like Exit Planning, the majority of ecom business owners haven't even started thinking about it.

Here's what that means in plain English.

You're working way too hard for what little you're getting.

You're building businesses that depend entirely on you.

You don't have the data, systems, or plans in place to scale without burning out first.

And most of you are one bad quarter away from serious trouble.

But here's the thing, and this is important, these aren't personality flaws or talent gaps.

These are skills.

Systems.

Habits.

Things that youcanlearn and implement.

And in the next six emails, I'm going to walk you through each category in detail.

What the scores actually mean for your day-to-day business.

Why these areas matter more than you think.

What you can do to move from "barely managing" to "actually thriving".

Right now I can tell you that most of you are leaving money on the table.

You're working harder than you need to, and building businesses that will never give you the freedom you started this for.

So if you haven't taken the assessment yet, make that your first step.

It takes less than 5 minutes, and you'll get a clear picture of where you compare to the averages above.

Then read these emails in the upcoming weeks, and take action.

I promise it'll hit different when you're looking at your own numbers.

Let's fix this, together.

Cyndi