Every business assessment I see asks the same useless questions: What’s your revenue? How many employees? What industry?
They’re measuring business size, not owner success.
I’ve worked with owners doing $10M who can’t take a week off. I’ve seen others at $2M who spend winters in Europe while their business runs perfectly. The difference isn’t in the P&L. It’s in how the business is built.
The Metrics That Don’t Matter
Here’s what traditional assessments measure:
Revenue Growth Rate Great, you’re growing 30% year on year. But if every percentage point requires more of your time, you’re not building a business. You’re inflating a job.
Employee Count “We’ve grown to 25 staff!” Congratulations. You now have 25 people who need you to make decisions. More employees without proper systems just means more dependency, not less.
Market Share You could own 50% of your market and still be chained to your desk. Market dominance means nothing if the business dominates you.
Profit Margins Important for the business, sure. But I know plenty of high-margin businesses where the owner hasn’t had a real holiday in five years. What good is 40% EBITDA if you never get to enjoy it?
What Actually Matters: The Two-Axis Reality
After building LTrent to 88 franchises and working with over 300 Sydney business owners through BGB, here’s what I’ve learned matters:
Axis 1: Wealth (What It Actually Pays You)
Not revenue. Not even profit. What lands in your pocket and portfolio after everything else.
This includes:
- Your actual take-home (wages plus distributions)
- Equity value that’s real, not theoretical
- Tax advantages you can bank
- Lifestyle benefits the business funds
A business doing $5M that puts $800K in your pocket beats a $10M business that pays you $300K. Every time.
Axis 2: Freedom (How Much It Needs You)
Not how many hours you work — that’s a choice. This is about operational dependency.
Key indicators:
- Can you disappear for a month without checking in?
- Do decisions wait for you or flow without you?
- Does revenue stop when you stop?
- Could you sell it tomorrow and walk away?
The brutal truth: most owners score high on one axis and terrible on the other. They have money but no time, or time but no money. Very few have both.
Why Standard Assessments Miss This
Traditional business assessments were built for corporate managers, not owner-operators. They assume the business and the owner are separate entities. For most of us, they’re not.
McKinsey doesn’t care if the CEO can take a holiday. They care about shareholder returns. But you’re not a public company. You’re an owner-operator, and your business exists to serve you, not the other way around.
The questions that matter aren’t:
- How big is your business?
- What’s your competitive advantage?
- What’s your 5-year plan?
The questions that matter are:
- What does this business actually give you?
- What does it take from you?
- Is that trade worth it?
The Assessment That Actually Works
The Black Diamond Locator asks two questions. Just two. But they’re the right two.
In under 2 minutes, it maps your position on a 20-point grid measuring wealth against freedom. No fluff about your mission statement. No questions about your org chart. Just the brutal, useful truth about where you actually sit.
I built this framework because I needed it. When I was running LTrent in the early days, every other assessment told me I was succeeding — growing revenue, adding franchises, increasing market share. But I was miserable. Working 80-hour weeks. Never seeing my family. Making good money but paying for it with my life.
It wasn’t until I started measuring the right things — wealth and freedom — that I could see what needed to change. Within three years, I had the business running on 45 minutes a week while it continued to grow.
What Your Position Tells You
Your position on the grid isn’t just a score. It’s a diagnosis that drives action.
Green (Low Wealth, Low Freedom): You’re in startup mode or stuck there. Everything depends on you and it’s not paying off yet. Normal for year one, concerning by year three.
Blue (Some Progress, But Stuck): You’ve made headway on one dimension but can’t crack the other. Usually means you’re solving the wrong problem first.
Red (The Danger Zone): Good at one, terrible at the other. The golden handcuffs scenario (money but no life) or the empty freedom problem (time but no resources).
Black (Breaking Through): You’ve solved one dimension and you’re making real progress on the other. The path is clear, just needs execution.
Double Black (The Summit): Both wealth and freedom. The business serves you. You work by choice, not necessity. This is what ownership was meant to be.
Stop Measuring the Wrong Things
Most owners spend years trying to grow revenue, expand their team, capture market share — all while becoming more trapped, not less.
They’re climbing the wrong mountain.
The real measure of business success isn’t size. It’s whether the business gives you the life you want. Wealth without freedom is a prison. Freedom without wealth is retirement. You want both.
That’s what we measure. That’s what matters.
Want to know where you actually sit? Take the Black Diamond Locator and find out in 2 minutes. No revenue questions. No employee count. Just the truth about whether your business is serving you or consuming you.
Because if you don’t know where you are, how can you possibly know which way to go?
P.S. whenever you're ready, here are 4 ways I can help you get unstuck and moving forward:
1. Want to escape the 80-hour rat race?
Grab a free copy of my book. I wrote it to show you how I built a business that runs without me. So I could get my time, my family, and my life back. → Get your copy here
2. Need more consistent cash coming in?
If you're a solo operator and want to grow fast, our Business Class program helps you double your revenue in 6 months, or you don't pay. → Learn more
3. Already making decent money, but the business still leans on you?
Our Elite Program helps you build a team and systems that take the weight off your shoulders. You get the full Black Diamond System, plus a business that works while you don't! → Find out how
4. Not sure what you need, but know something has to change?
Book a free call. We'll look at where you're stuck, find what's holding you back, and map out a simple next step to get you moving. Did I mention it's free? → Grab a time here
