This Part of Your Business Plan is Actually Making You Poorer

Let me tell you about a $60M business owner I met with recently.

He’d done everything “right.” He had the spreadsheets. Analytics. Forecasts. But when we started analyzing his data through the Professional Skeptic Frame (one of my favorite tools), we discovered something shocking.

Despite all of his analysis, he was leaving millions on the table.

He was asking “what” questions when he should have been asking “why” questions. 

This is the crucial difference in the ANALYZE step of the CASE Framework. We’re not just looking at what the numbers are - we’re understanding why they exist and what patterns they reveal. 

Remember last week when we talked about compiling your vendor expenses? Now it’s time to analyze that data. But not in the way you might think. 

Here’s what most business owners do wrong: they look at individual numbers instead of patterns. They focus on specific expenses instead of the trends. They get caught up in the trees and miss the entire forest. 

Instead, here are some examples of what you should be analyzing:

1. Timing Patterns: Are there months when you consistently add expenses? Do these align with your highest or lowest revenue months?

2. Usage vs Cost Patterns: What’s the gap between when you pay for something and when you actually use it?

3. Behavioral Patterns: Are your fixed costs truly fixed? Are your variable costs actually varying with the right metrics?

4. Core vs Non-Core Patterns: What percentage of your expenses have no associated savings and aren’t core to your operations?

5. Industry Rhythm Patterns: Are your experiences aligned with your industry’s natural cycles, or are you fighting against them?

The goal isn’t to judge whether these patterns are “good” or “bad”... yet – that comes in the Strategy phase. Right now, we’re just trying to see the complete picture. 

Here’s a quick example: An entrepreneur I’ve worked with in the past discovered, using the CASE Framework, that they were adding most of their new expenses in May. All because they wanted “more free time for summer.” This unconscious pattern was costing them over $300,000 annually in unnecessary expenses.

They never would have spotted this without proper analysis. 

Want to analyze your own pattern? Start with these questions:

• What percentage of your expenses have no associated savings?

• How many of your “time-saving” tools are actually saving time?

• Are your biggest expenses aligned with your highest revenue months?

• What percentage of your non-core expenses could easily be eliminated?

The answers might surprise you. They usually do.

Next week, we’ll cover how to turn these insights into action with the STRATEGIZE phase. But for now, focus on finding your patterns. 

Because remember - you can’t optimize what you don’t understand. 

Here’s to your success and financial certainty.

PS: If you missed last week’s COMPILE breakdown, reply to this email and I’ll send you that too.