Growth feels good.
Is it actually healthy?
Adding headcount is exciting. It's also the fastest way to compress your margin. Frank tracks whether your revenue is growing faster than your costs — so you always know if the growth is sustainable.
6-month growth check
Revenue growth
From $180k to $243k
Headcount growth
From 5 to 6 people
Payroll as % of revenue
Down from 44% — improving
Revenue per employee
Up from $36,000 — healthy
Gross margin trend
Growing AND improving margin
Revenue grew 35%, headcount grew 20%. You're scaling efficiently. Revenue per employee is up and margin is improving — this is the right kind of growth.
More people. More revenue.
But is the margin keeping up?
The most common growth trap: revenue growing 30%, payroll growing 40%, and the margin quietly compressing while everything looks positive on the surface. The headline revenue number is encouraging. The profit picture tells a different story.
Frank tracks the ratio between your revenue growth and cost growth every week. When payroll starts outpacing revenue, you hear about it at month 2 — not month 12.
Frank tells you which story you're in.
“Revenue per employee grew $4,500 this quarter. You're scaling efficiently — the team is producing more per person, not just more people.”
“Revenue grew 18% but payroll grew 34%. Gross margin dropped from 58% to 48%. You're growing, but each month is less profitable than the last.”
The numbers that matter when you're scaling
Revenue per employee
The clearest signal of whether growth is efficient. Rising = healthy. Falling = you're adding cost faster than revenue.
Payroll as % of revenue
Frank tracks this ratio month-by-month. When it starts creeping up, he flags it before it becomes structural.
Margin under new hires
What did gross margin do in the 3 months after each hire? Frank maps the impact so you know whether each addition paid off.
Revenue growth rate vs cost growth rate
The single most important ratio in a scaling business. Frank tracks both and tells you which is winning.
Goal trajectory
As you scale, are you closer to or further from your annual revenue target? Frank checks every week — not just at year end.
Early margin compression alerts
When margin starts compressing — even slowly — Frank flags it. Three months of warning beats three months of loss.
Grow with confidence.
Not with fingers crossed.
Frank tracks whether your growth is healthy — every week, before the damage is done.
No credit card required