Ten Minutes With The Only Numbers That Matter

The Smallest Thing You Can Sell — Once the check shows which source is actually paying, this is how you build the next small thing for it instead of the course nobody asked for. Read it after you run today’s drill.

Overlooked Puddles by Mike Searles — When one source outearns the rest, the move is to find more rooms like that one. A field guide to the small, ignored niches nobody big bothers with. (Affiliate link, the building takes a cut.)

The Weekly Money Check

Ten minutes, every Friday, before you close the laptop.

You’re going to split this week’s money by where it came from, find the one number that moved, and pick the single thing you do about it next week. No dashboard, no spreadsheet you’ll abandon by August. Here’s the drill.

1 // Pull the week’s revenue by source

Open each place money lands and write down the seven-day total next to its name. Gumroad: Analytics, set the range to last 7 days, read the total. Affiliate dashboards: same window, copy the number. Stripe, Substack, anything else, one line each. Four sources or fewer, in your notes app, on a Post-it, wherever. Three minutes, tops.

2 // Compare it to last Friday

Put this week’s number next to last week’s for every source. Skip the grand total. Hunt the one source that moved most, up or down, in raw dollars, and circle it. Nine times out of ten it’s not the source you’d have bet on.

3 // Name the cause in one sentence

Why did that number move? Say it plain: ‘Affiliate clicks jumped because the Tuesday email linked Searles.’ Or ‘Store dropped to zero because I shipped nothing and mailed no one.’ Name a cause you could test, not a flattering story. If you honestly can’t, write ‘unknown, watch next week’ and move on.

4 // Decide the one thing for next week

Pick one move tied to that mover and put it on Monday’s list before you stand up. Source went up: run that exact thing again, on purpose, and write down which day. Source went down: one concrete fix, like ‘email the store list Tuesday.’ One action, dated, on the calendar. Not three. One.

Standard for the check itself: if it runs past ten minutes, you’re analyzing instead of deciding. Cap it, take the one number and the one action, and shut the laptop. The whole value is that it’s short enough to actually do every Friday.

Pull the numbers. Pick the mover. Book the one move. Done by Friday lunch.

What moved most for you this week, and what are you doing about it Monday? Hit reply with both. I read every one. ~ J.D.