Business Score

How to use the Business Score

1. Set aside five minutes. Answer on your own first, for the business (or the team) you run today.
2. Score each statement 0, 1 or 2. Score what is true now, not what you plan. If in doubt, score it down.
3. Read your lowest areas. Your score shows each area out of 6, your lowest one or two, and a first step for each.
4. Copy or print your result. The printout carries your answers too, so you can take it to your team or your manager and score again in 30 days.

How the Business Score works

Each area of the business gets three statements. Add up the three scores and you have the area's score out of 6. Add the eight areas together and you have your total out of 48. Your lowest one or two areas show where to look first. Where areas tie, they are taken in the order listed and the others on the same score are named too.

Scores run from 0 to 2 because three choices force an honest answer, where a scale of 1 to 10 invites a safe 6. Many first scores are 0, and that is fine: the statements double as a list of good habits to build. If you run a team rather than the whole company, score the team you lead.

What the number is, and what it is not

It is a self-check from your own answers. It is not a diagnosis, a grade or a comparison with other businesses, and there is no “good” score to hit. Its value is as a starting line: score again in 30 days with the same 24 statements, and any change you see is real.

The eight areas

• Foundations, for when nobody is quite sure who owns what. Vaults: Setup and Foundations (Mini) and Business Foundations (Core).
• People, for when hiring, growing and keeping people runs on gut feel. Vaults: People and Performance (Mini) and Team and Talent Systems (Core).
• Execution, for when processes get followed for a while, then drift. Vaults: Scale Starter Kit (Mini) and Systems for Scale (Core).
• Strategy, for when plans don’t turn into weekly action. Vaults: Strategic Execution Tools (Mini) and Strategy to Execution (Core).
• Clients and suppliers, for when clients, suppliers and campaigns are run differently every time. Vaults: Client and Partner Launchpad (Mini) and Clients, Suppliers and Campaigns (Core).
• Money and sales, for when cash, sales and data aren’t properly under control. Vaults: Money and Data Launchpad (Mini) and Money, Sales and Data (Core).
• Communication and governance, for when decisions, rules and risks aren’t written down anywhere. Vaults: Governance and Risk (Mini) and Communication, Governance and Visibility (Core).
• Resilience, for when the business isn’t ready for a crisis, a key exit or a sale. Vaults: Exit, AI and Continuity (Mini) and Resilience and Succession (Core).

A worked example

Press “See an example” above to fill in the free pack's own example: Tamberly Studio, a made-up eight-person design studio, on its first day. It scores 19 out of 48. Its lowest areas are Money and sales and Resilience, on 1 of 6 each, and its strongest is Clients and suppliers, on 4 of 6. So the studio starts with money. The first step for that area is a set day each week to write down what is in the bank, what the studio is owed and what it owes, and to send any invoices that are waiting.

Common mistakes

• Scoring what you plan, not what happens. If invoices go out on time most months but not every month, that's a 1. Score it down when in doubt.
• Trying to fix every area at once. Work on the lowest one or two for the next 30 days and leave the rest.
• Reading the total as a grade. Two businesses on 24 can have very different problems. The area scores tell you where to look.
• Not writing the date down. Copy or print your result, so you can compare the same 24 statements next month.

Want the score on paper, with space for your day-30 re-score? It is the first system in the free pack, alongside the Weekly Operating System, a one-page SOP and six more done-for-you systems in Word and PDF.