I often see companies struggling to break through a revenue or profitability limit because of how they build their systems. They think about data, systems, and financial plans as disconnected matters, when, in fact, it is only possible to scale any operation if all three are working efficiently together.

When these elements are managed in isolation, it creates bottlenecks that slow down strategic growth and weaken profitability. When they are aligned, though, a business can move from reactive problem-solving to proactive scaling with minimal friction.

_{Four Common Scaling Mistakes Companies Make}

Too Much Data, Not Enough Insight

How much does it really cost to acquire a new customer? Most businesses can’t answer this.

In today’s digital world, there’s no shortage of data. Yet, when you ask essential questions like:

• What’s our customer acquisition cost?
• How long do customers stay?
• What’s the frequency of their purchases?
• What’s the lifetime value of our customers?

…you often get blank stares or hesitant answers from the finance teams.

These aren’t complex questions—they are foundational metrics that determine the health of your business. However, too many organisations find themselves drowning in transactional data while missing the key business model numbers that drive the business’ success. When you don’t have these numbers at your fingertips, you lose clarity.

And clarity is everything in scaling a business.

With the abundance of data at your disposal, you may be measuring everything but leveraging nothing. In essence, it’s not the quantity of the data on dashboards that matters—it’s how well you can link it to actionable insights that can change the outcomes tomorrow.

Revenue Is a Symptom, Not a Driver

Revenue is the result of actions taken in previous periods. Think of it as a trailing indicator—it tells you what has already happened, not what will happen.

If you want to scale, you need to look beyond revenue and instead focus on the actions that create sustainable growth. This is where most organisations miss the mark.

The biggest growth drivers in your business are often hidden in the data you’re not even tracking. They are embedded in the processes and behaviours that occur before revenue is generated.

The right KPIs are the metrics that tell the story of what’s happening inside the business, not just in the financial statements or the order book.

If all you’re doing is focusing on the revenue number, you’re missing out on the strategic levers that will help you scale faster. Revenue is just the outcome. To grow, you need to zoom in on the actions and processes that feed into that result—customer acquisition, retention, speed of delivery, product fit and process efficiencies.

What are the consequences of using wrong metrics?

• Key decisions are made in the dark, based on incomplete data.
• Vital metrics like Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Lifetime Value (LTV) are not evaluated.
• Businesses cannot answer foundational questions like, “What is the return on every dollar spent on customer acquisition?”

When the right questions go unanswered, businesses start experiencing stagnant revenues and declining profitability when cycles change, unable to tap into the real opportunities for growth.

The Real Cost of Assumptions In Place Of Metrics

Let me share an example from a conversation I had recently with a company that relies heavily on salespeople for customer acquisition.

They told me, “In our industry, we need salespeople. That’s how we sell.” But when I asked how they knew this was the best acquisition strategy, they couldn’t answer. Worse, they didn’t know how much each new customer was costing them in terms of sales salaries, commissions, and overhead.

This lack of customer acquisition insights has significant repercussions on margins because we cannot effectively control returns on selling costs if we do not know what drives them to levels we should not tolerate.

The logical conclusion:

• Without calculating the cost of acquisition accurately, there is no clear understanding of whether the sales team is truly the best method for driving growth.
• The longer it takes a salesperson to convert a lead, the higher the acquisition cost—and every delay is money left on the table. What do customers need to convert faster?

Salespeople are often seen as all that is required in traditional businesses, but that’s because most companies have never experimented with alternatives. They haven’t calculated the customer acquisition cost for other channels or compared the ROI of different sales strategies.


It’s critical to track the efficiency and impact of each acquisition channel, and not just rely on what has been done before.

When you view your business as a sequence of repeatable steps, the true power of data comes to play.  You can measure parts of the process and see where we should scale and where we should optimise to improve the returns.

This is how we can drive efficiency and scale without wasting resources.

Are You Building The Right Information System For Strategic Growth?

Executives often think that buying a new technology will solve their data issues. But systems are only as effective as the business models and the underlying processes they support.


Even worse, in the recent example I’ve seen, an excellent technology solution has been regarded by the board and too expensive because instead of empowering and freeing people who are using it, the system was regarded as a data entry solution. Really, in 2024?


Too often, I see businesses overwhelmed with data that isn’t actually helping them make better decisions. What’s missing isn’t the system, it’s the strategy behind the system.


What happens if we shift focus from purely financial metrics to activity-based data? By tracking the right actions, you can get a clearer understanding of what drives profitability and scale.



It’s not just about the numbers on the financial statements. You need insights into:

• Customer behaviour: Are they sticking around for repeat business, or are they just one-off transactions?
• Sales efficiency: How long does it take to turn a lead into a paying customer?
• Scalability: What areas of the business can grow without adding more people?

The key here is understanding where to apply pressure to get the best results. This means knowing not just what has happened, but what is likely to happen based on the current activities.

That’s how you take control of the future.

If you are interested in building systems that scale and align with strategic growth, make sure to sign up for my live workshops in the Growth CFO Secrets Series where I share my insights and personal frameworks collected, fine-tuned and tested in the trenches of business finance.