In this Cash In On Camera interview, host Sheryl Plouffe talks with data‑dashboard specialist Lane Booth about executive dashboards tailored for service‑based businesses. Lane defines an executive dashboard as a single, end‑to‑end view that combines marketing, operations, team performance, and financials into the top ten metrics a business owner can glance at each week. He explains why such dashboards become essential once a company reaches the multi‑six‑figure to seven‑figure range, when entrepreneurs shift from hustle mode to data‑driven decision making. Lane recommends Klipfolio as the most suitable, affordable platform for small‑to‑mid‑size service firms, noting that larger tools like Tableau or Domo are overkill. He outlines a two‑step business model: a 60‑90‑day dashboard build phase followed by a recurring service, typically priced around $20,000 per client per year, meaning five clients can generate an additional $100k in revenue. Lane also shares practical steps to get started—leveraging internal team members, using templates, and joining his monthly live workshop (lanebooth.com/live). Finally, he highlights collaboration (joint workshops, masterclasses, borrowed authority) as his primary marketing tactic. The conversation positions executive dashboards as a high‑value add‑on service that can scale a service provider’s revenue while delivering strategic insight to clients.
Chapters
business— hint, hint, you do want to do that— then you're in the right place. You're watching Cash In On Camera. You're listening to the podcast. And today we have Lane Booth who is here. She's a data and dashboard expert. So Lane, so great to have you here to talk about this. This is actually a topic of dashboards that I actually personally have been thinking about in the last little while as I retool and relook at what's coming up in the next year. And dashboards is something that I'm not as familiar with as something that we add to our suite of services. So it is something that I really want to dig in with you today. I mean, I'm familiar with dashboards, but the ones that I'm familiar with, I'm not sure are the ones that you're recommending. So this is where I want to kind of dive in. Tell us first, before we dive right in, what is a dashboard for service providers? Like, what is it that we're talking about exactly?
Yes. Oh my goodness, thank you so much for having me, by the way, Cheryl. It's going to be a super fun conversation. I'm excited to Just bring simplicity to numbers and dashboards so that other people can see the wild benefits that come from looking at their numbers. So when you ask the question, what really is a dashboard? And you know, you'll see stuff on maybe some of the current software apps that you're using. There's some that pop up in Asana. There's some that are in your QuickBooks. There's some already that are in Kajabi, but What the kind of dashboard that I'm talking about is a dashboard that helps you see your entire business end to end. We like to call these executive level dashboards so that you can see what's happening all the way in your, the front end of your marketing to the middle with your operations and your team members and all the way what we call the end, you know, cash in the bank with your financials. And so, so many people have disjointed bits of information coming into their business, but when you can see that collectively, end-to-end, one screen, you know, the top 10 numbers you need to know so that you can sip your coffee on Monday morning and know everything's a-okay for the week. That's what we're talking about. So much like a dashboard in your car tells you if you're overheating or if you've got enough gas in the tank, a dashboard, an executive dashboard should be telling you the same thing. Is everything on track? Am I good for this next trip coming up in my business?
I love that because yes, I'm familiar with dashboards in Kajabi and other tools that I use, but they're independent of one another. And so this executive dashboard that you're referencing is one where all of the things come together. And so let's talk about that. I mean, because if you're a service provider, let's say you're an online business manager, you're a VA, you're in financial services. I mean, you're— you have services that run month to month, maybe on retainer, that sort of thing. You could, I think, as I understand it, you could add a dashboard to your suite of services for your clientele, correct? Yes.
Yes. That is the, the big linchpin that we see is taking service providers to the next level with their income potential is not by reinventing the wheel, but just giving you a better asset to serve your clients at the next level and also to provide this premium service at a new premium price.
Right. And is the reason why it would be advantageous for a service provider to add this to their suite of services because the people that they're serving don't have one themselves?
Precisely. That's exactly it, Cheryl.
Good. I'm glad I'm on the right track because the truth is, I don't think that the majority of people have a dashboard, an executive dashboard.
Correct.
Why is that? Why would it be since it's— I mean, it makes perfect sense that we would have a dashboard like in a car or in a in an airplane or something where we could see everything at a glance. But why don't we have those?
Yeah, such a great question. I mean, and as entrepreneurs, like, we know you are busy, right? Like, you bootstrapped this thing, probably at some point you got the ball rolling, and now here you are, you've brought on team members and you are just trying to delegate more and to level up your leadership. And somewhere along the way you started realizing maybe I should know like how my lead pages are actually performing or how my ads are really performing. And is, is that really leading to cash in the bank or is it just getting me more, uh, you know, followers? You know, at some point the question started to pop up as, is what I'm doing really working? Is what I'm doing actually adding revenue, adding profit? And so prior to this point, you just had to get out there and hustle at it and make sales because until you were making enough sales to hire team members or to bring on, um, new tools in your business, that it wasn't as advantageous to look at the numbers when most of what you were trialing and testing wasn't going to work out anyway. But now here you are, multi-six figures, multi-seven figures later, and you've got systems in place, you've got measures that are going to allow you to continue to refine versus reinvent the wheel, uh, and that is typically the tipping point. And sometimes we get there and we just don't realize that we're there. And like, oh, what— there's, there's something that happens. Maybe there's a launch that fails, or maybe there's a team member that you're questioning if they're really most fruitful to have in your business at this point, but you're not sure how to make that decision. That's typically like the trigger point of saying, oh, maybe now's the time to really start looking more deeply at my numbers to make better data-driven decisions going forward.
Yeah, I I love that. And it, and it does make sense that you be at a level, let's say a 6-figure level, 7-figure level, when you really start to look at this idea of an executive dashboard. Because I think prior to, say, just to give it a milestone, prior to 6 figures, you're really in the hustle mode. You're really just trying to figure out who you are, what services you provide. You're just trying to get clients. But I think once you get into, as you pointed out, especially in that multiple 6-figure range, that's when really you start to think about, efficiencies and how we can make things better and looking at numbers. And then you're stuck going, how am I going to do that? And that's when the dashboards come into play. So are there specific tools, technology, software that you use and recommend to others to create the dashboard, or is that the proprietary thing that you do? I wouldn't want to— you don't have to, you know.
No, no, no, we actually, we actually use a, uh, a software that's readily available for, for anyone. We've, I will say we've tested and trialed lots of different software out there. There's, and there's new stuff coming on the market. It seems like every week. But when it comes to small business support, what we have found, one of the most important things is to look at the built-in integrations of the software platform that you're looking for. So we have found that Klipfolio spelled with a K, Clipfolio is one of the best broad uses for small, the small business world at an advantageous price point. So there's lots of, you know, mid-level and corporate level, like you'll hear Domo and Tableau out there. Those are really more for corporate world. And you'll see some other, other things popping up. There's Google Data Studio, which is free, but maybe not so user-friendly in getting things up and going. And so we have found that Klipfolio being built initially to be a dashboard provider, uh, has been the, the best tool that we recommend, that we teach, that we use with our boutique clients. Um, so we practice what we preach over here.
I love that. And so the idea then would be, let's say you're at, to your recommendation, you're using that particular, you know, software. And then the idea would be that you would build that out as an add-on service to your existing suite of services. And so are you, is it that we're white labeling that, or how does that work?
Yeah, that's a great question. So when, let's say you are maybe an operations consultant, or maybe you're a fractional CFO, or, you know, some type of online service provider typically. And you are, you either have services that you're offering to clients currently, uh, but you're just feeling like you're kind of stuck in too many meetings and, uh, too much of what I call the doing. You're just doing the doing in the business. And really you've got a higher level skill set already available to you. You've typically been in corporate or you've been in your role, um, in business for an extended period of time. You really have this opportunity to step into what I call the advisor role, to stop doing all the doing, but really be more of a leadership and a partnership position with your clients. And so when you couple that with the business insights that the business owners, that the creative running hair on fire business owners don't have time or skillset or attention to time to look into, that really elevates you as a partner. And someone that can provide the business assets and the business insights that they absolutely need, but it's just not their forte. So when you can couple that with their creative vision, oh my goodness, like the fireworks that can go off in the business are just phenomenal.
Yeah. And I can imagine that once you have this established and then you have that as really a service that you provide, you're now obviously charging for that service. So I think that's, that's where things dovetail into the title of this episode today, which is Adding $100,000 to Your Revenue with Online Dashboards. Those numbers are being derived by adding that on as a service.
Absolutely. So we teach our students to kind of go through a two-step approach where you do have an initial, we call the dashboard build series or the dashboard build setup for the client. So that's typically 60 to 90 days. Where there's certain key milestones to achieve. There's certain key conversations to have so that you have a dashboard up and ready and running within that 2 to 3 month period. And then it so naturally flows into continuing to work with you on a monthly basis going forward. And, you know, we have found that the majority of dashboard clients, and we offer just dashboard services, with our boutique clients, but any one client is typically worth not $3,000, not $5,000, but $20,000 over a 1-year period. And so it literally only takes 5 clients to hit that $100,000 in additional revenue. And what's great about it too is like, if you want to couple it with something that you really do already enjoy doing in your business, then it's just even a greater potential for you as well.
Yeah, I love that. And so what do you recommend be the steps? Someone who is watching this or who is listening to this right now saying, gee, I don't have an executive dashboard like Lane said. What are the steps to start thinking about this, doing this? Explain how that works. What are the first few steps we need to think about?
Yeah, so I will say, like, if you are curious, we're going to be sharing about a workshop that I host on a regular basis. About once a month. So if you'd like to join me at our next upcoming workshop, you can go to laynebooth.com/live. That is Layne with a Y, L-A-Y-N-E. And, and come join us. And we are very open and transparent about what it looks like and what it takes to actually implement this inside your business. And so we would absolutely welcome you to, to join us for that. We'd love to have you. And I would say, like, for, for those that maybe, maybe you are a business owner that needs this in your business and you're wondering like, who do I reach out to? Where, where can I go next? You can certainly start tapping into your current team. You can ask them, hey, are you familiar with, with dashboards or with numbers? Is this something that we could pull together? There's a lot of great starting points and templates out there that can kind of get you, you know, step your foot in the water. So I would certainly suggest checking that out. But I'll say it's typically not a great long-term solution. It typically— you're going to want to customize something to you. But just getting familiar with it and getting comfortable with it in the beginning with, you know, maybe a team member that's already a part of your organization is a great place to start.
Yeah. And understanding, or at least having some thought put into what are all of the different metrics that we want to pull together in order to have a holistic view of what is happening in the business, right? So that's fantastic. I love that you're providing that type of training and workshop. Now, what is, in your estimation, and this could be related to dashboards or not, but in terms of marketing, what lane is working for you? A tip, a tool, a tactic or technique that's really helping you to market yourself and your business today?
Yes, I will say my favorite and most natural thing for marketing as like an ex-corporate person that had no clue what marketing even was 5 years ago, uh, my favorite thing to do is collaborate. So much like, you know, Cheryl and I are doing right here, getting in a place where, you know, I can provide information, it's also of value to the other person. We host, you know, live workshops and live events with other speakers, and we collaborate on the content together. Um, we'll host joint masterminds together, mastermind sessions, mastermind masterclasses. Those are some of my favorite things to do because It's such a great way to get to know another leader in the space, but also reach additional people and get visibility through borrowed authority.
You don't have to convince me. I know all about collaboration. I think that's totally where it's at. I think that's where it's at now. And it's really a foundational principle of business that is never going to go away. So despite what happens with social media or this or that, you know, collaboration thing will never, will never wane. So this has been great, Lane. Thank you so much for coming on Cashing on Camera today and sharing with us how, again, you could add, you know, $100,000. And when you really paint the picture of the numbers there, it's like 5 people. Like, that's a doable thing. Yeah, I love it. So thank you so much for being on the show today. And, um, again, the website to go and register for your workshop is Yes, just go to www.lanebooth.com/live. Sounds great. Thank you so much, Lane, for being here. I can't wait to chat with you again.
