A $200M CEO ranks five metrics for a $500K revenue business. Cash flow comes first because no cash means failure. Average Order Value is second since bigger sales improve cash flow fast. Gross margin, conversion rate, and LTV follow, with LTV least useful when you don't yet know your customer lifespan.
First one, gross margin. 3. Why 3? Because it's in the middle and I feel like it gives me room to go up and down. I mean, look, it's important. The reality is that the $500K, you're still figuring out what you're selling. Gross margin matters, but it doesn't matter that much. LTV. 5. You don't know what your LTV is. It doesn't matter yet. You're still early in business. Who knows how long the L is going to be? Cash flow. Cash flow is 1. This is the point where if you run out of money at this stage, that's it, you're done. It's the fuel of business. You got to know your cash. This is gonna be either number 4 or number 2. Okay. AOV. 2. At this point, amplifying average order value is more important than lifetime value, 'cause average order value speaks more to the now, which is gonna help with cash flow. For number 4, you got conversion rate. How does that feel? You know, I feel okay with conversion rate being at 4, because you're doing so much testing right now, it's gonna be whipsawing all over the place, so.
