Most business advice tells you to track everything. Revenue, expenses, traffic, engagement, conversion rates, customer lifetime value, bounce rates, ad spend, ROI on seventeen different channels.

It’s overwhelming. And honestly? Most of it doesn’t matter.

I’m not an accountant. I don’t have a finance degree. I learned to do nails, not analyze spreadsheets. But I’ve been running my e-commerce business long enough to know: if you track everything, you end up understanding nothing.

I learned this the expensive way. First, I tried to track too much. Then, I tracked too little. Finally, I figured out what actually tells me if my business is healthy or heading for trouble.

Every Monday morning, I spend 30 minutes looking at five numbers. That’s it. Five.

These five metrics tell me more about the real state of my business than any complicated dashboard ever did.

Let me show you what I track, what I ignore, and how I learned the difference.

The Expensive Mistakes That Taught Me What Matters

When I first transitioned from studio work to e-commerce, I thought I needed to track everything. I set up elaborate spreadsheets. I monitored daily revenue, hourly traffic, individual product performance, social media metrics, email open rates, website bounce rates.

I was drowning in data and making terrible decisions.

Mistake #1: I tracked revenue but not profit.

I’d celebrate a $5,000 week without realizing I spent $4,200 on inventory and ads. I felt successful while barely breaking even. It took three months of “good revenue” before I realized I had no money in the bank.

That’s when I learned: revenue is a vanity metric. Profit is what keeps your business alive.

Mistake #2: I tracked social media engagement obsessively.

Likes, comments, shares, follower growth. I’d spend an hour analyzing which posts performed best, trying to replicate that success. Meanwhile, my actual business metrics were slipping.

Then I looked at where customers were actually coming from. Social media accounted for maybe 5% of sales. Google search drove 70%. I was optimizing for the wrong thing.

Mistake #3: I stopped tracking anything for two months.

After burning out on too much data, I swung the other direction. I just ran the business by feel. Ordered inventory when it seemed low. Spent money when it felt okay.

Then I ran out of a bestseller because I didn’t notice the sales velocity increasing. Then I over-ordered a slow mover because I “felt like” it would sell. Then I realized I’d been losing money on a product category for six weeks without knowing it.

That’s when I learned: you need some numbers, but they have to be the right ones.

Mistake #4: I tried using expensive business analytics software.

I thought maybe I just needed better tools. I signed up for a $99/month analytics platform that promised to track everything and give me insights.

It did track everything. The problem was I didn’t understand half of what it was showing me. The other half didn’t matter for my business. I was paying $99/month to feel overwhelmed.

I canceled it after two months and went back to Google Sheets.

These mistakes probably cost me $10,000+ in lost profit, bad inventory decisions, and wasted time. But they taught me exactly what matters.

The 5 Numbers I Actually Track

Every Monday morning at 8:30am, I open my tracking sheet and look at five numbers. This takes me about 30 minutes total.

These five metrics tell me everything I need to know about business health.

1. Actual Profit (Not Revenue)

What I track: Total revenue minus all costs (inventory, shipping, platform fees, advertising, tools, everything).

Why it matters: This is the only number that tells you if you’re actually making money. Revenue can look great while you’re bleeding cash.

How I calculate it:

• Total sales for the week
• Minus: Cost of goods sold (what I paid for the inventory I sold)
• Minus: Shipping costs
• Minus: Platform fees (payment processing, e-commerce platform, etc.)
• Minus: Advertising spend
• Minus: Tool subscriptions (prorated for the week)
• = Actual profit

What I learned: Some of my bestselling products by revenue were my least profitable by margin. I was working hard to sell items that barely made me money. This metric showed me where to focus.

My benchmark: I aim for 40% profit margin after all costs. Anything below 30% gets examined closely. Below 20% gets discontinued unless there’s a strategic reason to keep it.

2. Inventory Turnover Rate

What I track: How fast each product category is selling compared to how much I have in stock.

Why it matters: Money sitting in inventory is money not working for you. Slow-moving inventory ties up cash you use to buy more of what’s actually selling.

How I calculate it:

• Units sold in the last 30 days
• Divided by average units in stock
• = Turnover rate

What I learned: I had it backwards. Thousands of dollars sitting in products that moved once every six months if that. And the products people actually wanted, the ones turning twice a month? I kept running out of those because my cash was tied up in the wrong inventory. This metric helped me see where I needed to free up money and where to put it instead.

My benchmark: I want most products turning over at least once per month. Anything slower than once every 60 days gets flagged for discount or discontinuation.

3. Repeat Customer Rate

What I track: What percentage of customers buy from me again within 90 days.

Why it matters: Acquiring new customers is expensive. Keeping existing customers is way more profitable. This number tells me if I’m building loyalty or just churning through one-time buyers.

How I calculate it:

• Number of customers who made a second buy within 90 days
• Divided by total customers from 90 days ago
• = Repeat buy rate

What I learned: When I started tracking this, my repeat rate was about 25%. That told me my post-buying experience needed work. I built email automation for product education and follow-up. Now it’s closer to 40% and climbing.

My benchmark: I want at least 35% of customers to buy again within 90 days. When this drops, I know something’s wrong with product quality, customer service, or follow-up.

4. Cash Flow (Money In vs. Money Out)

What I track: Actual cash coming into my bank account vs. going out, weekly.

Why it matters: You can be profitable on paper but broke in reality if your timing is off. Inventory purchases are big cash outlays that happen before sales come in. You need to know if you can cover expenses.

How I track it:

• Beginning balance
• Plus: Money received this week (from sales)
• Minus: Money spent this week (inventory, expenses)
• = Ending balance

What I learned: I ran into trouble. I bought a large inventory order the same week I had tool renewals and supplier payments due. I was profitable overall, but temporarily cash-strapped. This tracking helps me time large purchases better.

My benchmark: I want at least 2 months of operating expenses in the bank at all times. When I dip below that, I pause inventory expansion and focus on selling what I have.

5. Customer Acquisition Cost vs. Average Order Value

What I track: How much I spend to get a customer vs. how much they spend with me.

Why it matters: If you’re spending $40 to acquire a customer who spends $35, you’re losing money. You need to know this ratio to make smart marketing decisions.

How I calculate it:

• Total marketing/advertising spend for the month
• Divided by number of new customers acquired
• = Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Then compare to average order value (AOV)

What I learned: I was spending too much on ads to acquire customers with low order values. This metric forced me to either reduce acquisition costs or increase order value (or both). I focused on increasing AOV through product bundles and it changed everything.

My benchmark: I want CAC to be less than 30% of AOV. Ideally around 20%. When it creeps higher, I either need cheaper acquisition ways or higher order values.

What I Stopped Tracking (And Why)

Here’s what I used to track obsessively that I don’t look at anymore:

Social media engagement: Likes, comments, shares. None of it correlated with sales. I check follower growth occasionally, but I don’t track engagement metrics.

Daily revenue: Too volatile to be useful. Some days are high, some are low. Weekly trends tell me way more. Daily numbers just created anxiety.

Website traffic: I know where my traffic comes from (mostly Google search). I don’t need to watch daily visitor counts. If traffic dropped significantly, it would show up in sales numbers anyway.

Email open rates: I used to obsess over open rates. Then I realized: purchases are what matter, not opens. I look at email-attributed revenue, not open rates.

Conversion rate: Everyone says to track this. For my business, it’s not that useful. I’m not running a funnel with a consistent traffic source. My traffic comes from different places with different intent levels. Aggregate conversion rate doesn’t tell me anything actionable.

Individual product performance daily: I used to check which products sold each day. It drove me crazy and didn’t help anything. Now I look at 30-day product performance, which shows real trends instead of daily noise.

Time spent on tasks: I tried time tracking to see where my hours went. It felt like surveillance of myself and didn’t change my behavior. I stopped.

The common thread: I stopped tracking things that created anxiety without enabling better decisions.

My Monday Morning 30-Minute Ritual

Here’s exactly what this looks like in practice:

8:30am – Pull the data (10 minutes):

• Export sales data from e-commerce platform to Google Sheets
• Update inventory counts
• Pull bank balance
• Record any expenses from the week

8:40am – Calculate the metrics (10 minutes):

• Update formulas in my tracking sheet (they mostly auto-calculate)
• Look at each of the five key metrics
• Note any significant changes from last week

8:50am – Decide what matters (10 minutes):

• Is anything trending in the wrong direction?
• Do I need to reorder inventory?
• Are there any cash flow issues coming up?
• Is anything surprising that I need to investigate?

Most weeks, everything looks fine and I just note the numbers. Some weeks, something’s off and I know I need to dig deeper or make a change.

This 30-minute ritual has probably saved me dozens of hours of unnecessary analysis and thousands of dollars in bad decisions.

The Simple Google Sheet That Actually Works

I’m not going to pretend I have some sophisticated system. Here’s what my tracking sheet literally looks like:

Sheet 1: Weekly Snapshot

• Date
• Revenue
• Cost of goods sold
• Other expenses
• Profit
• Profit margin %
• Cash balance

Sheet 2: Inventory Turnover

• Product name
• Current stock
• 30-day sales
• Turnover rate
• Flag if slow-moving

Sheet 3: Customer Metrics

• Total customers (cumulative)
• New customers this month
• Repeat customers this month
• Repeat rate %

Sheet 4: Marketing ROI

• Ad spend this month
• New customers acquired
• Customer acquisition cost
• Average order value
• CAC/AOV ratio

That’s it. Four sheets. Simple formulas. Nothing fancy.

I spent maybe 2 hours setting this up initially. Now I just update numbers weekly and the formulas do the rest.

You don’t need expensive software. You need clarity on what matters and consistent tracking of those things.

How This Changed My Decision-Making

Before I had this clarity, I was making decisions based on feelings and guesses.

“I feel like this product is doing well.” (It wasn’t.)

“I think we need more traffic.” (We needed better conversion of existing traffic.)

“Maybe if I post more on social media, sales will increase.” (They didn’t.)

Now I make decisions based on data that actually matters:

Profit margin is shrinking on a product? I investigate cost increases or price adjustments needed.

Inventory turnover is slowing on a category? I discount to move it and don’t reorder as much.

Repeat rate is dropping? I look at product quality, customer service, or post-acquisition communication.

Cash flow is tightening? I pause new inventory expansion and focus on selling what I have.

CAC is creeping up? I test new acquisition channels or focus on increasing order value.

I’m not guessing anymore. I’m reading what the numbers are telling me and responding.

This doesn’t mean I ignore intuition. I still have gut feelings about products, content, direction. But now I can confirm those feelings with data, or realize when my gut is wrong.

What I Wish Someone Had Told Me Earlier

You can’t manage what you don’t measure, but you can drown in measurements that don’t matter.

Start with fewer metrics, not more. Track the things that directly impact your ability to stay in business and grow sustainably.

The best tracking system is the one you’ll actually use.

My Google Sheet beats someone else’s fancy dashboard. I understand it. I built it. I use it every week without fail.

It’s okay to learn what matters through mistakes.

I wasted time tracking the wrong things. I made expensive decisions without enough data. That’s how I learned. You probably will too. That’s normal.

The numbers are just information, not judgment.

When profit drops or repeat rate declines, that’s not failure—it’s information telling you something needs attention. The numbers don’t care about your feelings. They just show patterns.

You need just enough data to make good decisions, not perfect data to make perfect decisions.

I don’t have perfect tracking. I probably miss some costs occasionally. My calculations are not textbook-correct. But they’re consistent, and consistency is what lets you see trends.

What Number Should You Start Tracking Today?

If you’re not tracking anything right now, don’t try to implement everything I shared. Start with one number.

I’d suggest starting with actual profit (revenue minus all costs).

Calculate it for last month. Write it down. Then calculate it again at the end of this month.

That’s it. One number, tracked consistently.

Once that becomes routine, add another. Maybe cash flow, or repeat customer rate, or inventory turnover—whatever feels like your biggest blind spot.

Build the habit of looking at numbers weekly before you build a complex tracking system.

And remember: the goal isn’t to track everything. The goal is to track what matters. This way, you can build a business that’s profitable and sustainable. It doesn’t need you to guess.

Here’s what I want to know:

What number do you track religiously? Or what number do you know you should be tracking but aren’t?

I learned what matters through expensive mistakes. Maybe I can save you some of those.

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Michele Alexandria

P.S. – If you want to see my actual Google Sheet template, reply to this email or DM me. I’m happy to share it. It’s nothing fancy, but if it helps you get started tracking what matters, it’s yours.

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