From the friendly caves of Pixie Hollow.

Any accountant will tell you that the numbers don't lie.

You can understand the state of any business by looking at its financial records.

Yesterday's email sparked some laughter when I told that story about the business who couldn't measure its support calls. Which is awesome - but I also need to point out that this is normal in my world. Every time I encounter a business that is in software or tech, or is a startup of some kind (by the true meaning of 'startup', not the white-collar meaning of "I'm going into business for myself"), there's a failure of measurement.

On the flip-side of this, I've been lucky to work with some companies who are really solid on their measurements. One of them is a pipes manufacturer whose SEO guy is the best I've ever worked with. Together, we were able to create a measurable shift in organic traffic of more than 12% within a very short period of time. I think I wrote something like 12 blogs for them, and blam! Off they went. Organic traffic is from people just randomly finding you through internet searches. It can have a huge impact on your bottom-line if your calls to action and follow-up behaviour are on the money.

Though I have to tell you, lately I'm finding the numbers thing even more fascinating since I learned the mystical art of numerology.

Ok, so Pixies are woo-woo folk anyway. But this numerology thing is starting to blow my mind in terms of what it surfaces about people.

It makes me wonder if it would work on businesses too.

Like, imagine if you could use your entity's name and "birth date" (or registration date) to better understand where you're going, what your weaknesses and challenges will be, and what's really driving you.

Ahhhh if only life were that simple! Ha!

In any case, the thing I want you to take away from today's email is that if you don't have numbers around your content, get them.

Study them.

Learn the picture of your organisation from the figures that it's giving you.

Things like: