Tick what you still do by hand — and work out what it costs you

This list comes from three businesses I took apart in full: a sailing school, a paid travel-guide publisher and a six-flat rental. It is not industry statistics — three businesses, not three hundred. But the routines repeated across them, and you almost certainly have some of them too. There is nothing to fill in and nothing to send: this page asks for no email and no form.

Three moves and you know what your routine costs

• What that looks like on a real example For a landlord with six flats, closing the accounting month took 3–6 hours. He valued his own hour at up to 150 PLN. Three hours × 150 × 12 is 5,400–10,800 PLN a year — and that is on time alone, before any mistakes in utility rebilling and any late payments.

Where the money goes quietly

• Answering incoming enquiries. Every day, evenings and weekends included. Moves: the share of enquiries that reach a booking.
• Following up the people who asked and never booked. After every enquiry. Moves: the conversion from question to payment.
• Filling the last places on an event that still has them. A few times a month. Moves: unsold places × the price of a place.
• Announcing what is happening this week. Once a week. Moves: the number of enquiries from people who are not in your chat.

The work that shows up in no report

• Confirming the line-up before an outing: “are we still on?”. Before every event. Moves: the share of events with a confirmed line-up a day ahead.
• Collecting replies and watching whether the minimum number is met. One to four times a week. Moves: the share of announcements that reached a quorum.
• Moving data by hand between the chat and the spreadsheet, and back. Daily. Moves: not a metric — your hours, and the number of sign-ups lost.
• Cancelling or moving an event when it doesn’t fill, and telling everyone. Every time it doesn’t fill. Moves: the share of people who come back after a reschedule.

The monthly cycle you cannot skip

• Getting the invoice from the managing company or the supplier. Once a month. Moves: how long the month takes to close.
• Collecting meter readings, or data from the other side. Once a month. Moves: the closing time and the number of chasing messages.
• Splitting costs across properties and billing the client. Once a month per property. Moves: the number of rebilling errors.
• Checking who has paid and reminding whoever hasn’t. Once a month, plus reminders. Moves: the number of late payments.
• Closing the month and setting the tax aside. Once a month. Moves: unpleasant surprises at the end of the quarter.
• Changing a client or tenant: contract, handover, deposit. A few times a year. Moves: the gap between clients.

The routine almost nobody remembers

• Checking the prices on your site against what they actually are. Should be weekly — usually isn’t done at all. Moves: the number of customers arriving on a wrong price.
• Checking that external and affiliate links are still alive. Weekly. Moves: lost click-throughs and affiliate commission.
• Checking that promo codes and discounts work and match everywhere. Before every campaign and after it. Moves: direct losses on a wrong discount.
• Checking what the description promises: what is included and what isn’t. On every change. Moves: the number of disputed refunds.

Five routines I won’t take

This isn’t modesty, it’s a filter: take them on and there is no uplift, while you still pay for the work.

• Anything that happens less often than monthly: the uplift never accumulates and there is nothing to measure.
• Anything where the agent’s mistake costs more than the time it saves.
• Photo and video write-ups, running social media: there is no measurable number behind them.
• The physical world: running the event, meeting the group, handing out the kit.
• Anything with no figure that can be measured before we start: with no starting point there is nothing to show and nothing to take a share of.