The research report my team published earlier this year is starting to reach a wider audience.
The core result is the one that surprised us most when the analysis finished.
We looked at ecommerce businesses doing one million to seventeen million in revenue, all operating similar models, and expected revenue size to explain most of the differences between the strong performers and the ones who were stuck.
It didn’t.
Revenue told us almost nothing about which businesses were thriving and which were struggling.
But structure did.
The Three Costs That Define Business Structure
By structure, I mean three specific costs that come out of every revenue dollar before the owner has a choice about what to do with it.
Marketplace fees. Debt service. Advertising capacity.
When those three are in balance, the business has room to grow, to pay the owner, to build a reserve.
When they’re out of balance, the business can look busy on the outside while quietly running out of oxygen on the inside.
That’s the finding I keep coming back to.
Not because it’s the most dramatic number in the report, but because it’s the most useful one for an owner trying to figure out where they actually stand.
Why Revenue Isn’t the Right Measure
Most of us look at revenue to gauge how the business is doing.
Revenue goes up, we feel better. Revenue plateaus, we feel worse.
But revenue isn’t measuring what we think it’s measuring.
It’s measuring the top of the funnel.
What comes out the bottom, after those three structural costs get their cut, is the actual business.
You can grow revenue for years and still be losing ground.
You can also hold steady on revenue and quietly become more profitable, if you fix the structure.
The report walks through both patterns with real numbers.
See Where Your Business Stands
If you haven’t read it yet, you can see it here.
If you have read it, this is a good week to start digging in to your business and see how it compares.
Then reach out and let’s chat about how we can improve what you find.
