You're using AI. You're moving faster. Things feel better. But here's the question that separates business owners who grow from business owners who guess: can you prove it?
"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion." — W. Edwards Deming
I was about to teach part 2 of my AI Beyond The Hype workshop recently. Right before we started, a woman walked up to me with a huge smile. She said, "I was at your workshop last year. Thank you for helping me make so much money!" She shook my hand and bounced back to her seat before I could ask a single follow-up question.
Two things hit me at the same time.
First, I should probably raise my speaking fee.
Second, I wished I had asked: what did you build? How is it making you money? Not to be nosy. I'm genuinely fascinated by how people implement what I teach. I know her business crossed a million in revenue last year. She was recognized in the room. The win was real.
But it got me thinking. How much of what people credit to AI is actual new revenue, actual hours reclaimed, actual opportunities closed because they finally had the bandwidth? And how much of it is just a feeling that things are going better?
That question is the one almost nobody in small business is asking yet.
QuickBooks recently surveyed 34,000 small business owners. 77% said they use AI regularly. More than 4 in 10 said it grew their revenue. They claimed a 74% productivity boost. Sounds impressive. Except most of those numbers are self-reported. They feel faster. They feel like it's working. That's the whole report. Vibes.
Vibes don't show up on a P&L.
A scoreboard does.
Picture a basketball team running up and down the court with no scoreboard. No clock. No score. Just five people working hard and saying, "I think we played well today." That's most small businesses with AI right now. Hustling. Sweating. Hoping.
Here's the good news. A scoreboard isn't complicated. Three columns. That's it. Minutes saved per workflow. Dollars saved or earned. Outcomes shipped that you couldn't have shipped without AI. Most owners don't need a dashboard. You just need three numbers.
Your KPIs might look a little different depending on your business. That's fine. The key is keeping it simple enough that you'll actually track it.
Next time someone walks up to me at a workshop and tells me AI made them money, I want to be the guy who asks the follow-up. How much? How? What did you build? I'm working on clearly articulating those answers for myself too. You should be doing the same.
Here's a play you can run in 10 minutes. Open your favorite AI tool. Paste this prompt:
"Look back through my history, memories, projects, agents, and any other sources you have to help me determine how much money AI has made for me in my businesses. I am trying to attribute ROI to AI. Also show me more opportunities where AI could help me gain tangible efficiencies and/or increase revenue and profit. Please ask me any questions you have, or tell me what I should connect you to, to fill gaps in your knowledge."
Your AI scoreboard, built by AI. That's the play.
Stop guessing. Start measuring. The owners who win with AI won't be the ones who feel like it's working. They'll be the ones who can prove it.
This week on King Moves (Ep. 133: Stop Waiting for Permission to Live Your Best Life), Justin and I unpack why most people wait for their lives to get blown up before they finally go on the adventure. We get into agency, permission, post-traumatic growth, and the story of how I lost my job because the venue I worked at got raided on the news while I was getting dressed for my shift. True story. I also share my King Move: build a future version of yourself as a custom AI. I call mine Elder Ethan. When I have a tough decision, I ask him.
One good decision can change everything. That might be the greatest AI ROI of all.
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