Two years ago, at a conference in Denver, I found myself in a room with 100 other entrepreneurs, all focused on acquiring, selling or investing in businesses. The keynote speaker had just finished an inspiring talk about how he grew his company over the years, eventually leading to a nine-figure exit. Then, he asked us a surprising question: "What do you think I did for the three years following my exit?"

"You bought a boat and went sailing?" No.

"Played golf every day?" Another guess. No!

"Travel the world?" Still no!

Finally, he revealed the unexpected truth: he fell into a deep depression!

As shocking as this may sound, it’s not uncommon. Many business owners experience a sense of loss, sadness or worse after exiting their business. It’s a great reminder that life, even with good health and money, isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. Without a sense of purpose, without a meaningful goal to work toward each morning, life can quickly become challenging.

That said, building a business with the hope of one day exiting is a perfectly respectable goal. I know the feeling all too well.

I often have conversations with event business owners who tell me they want to sell their business "in five years." While their current situation and their plan to reach that goal are already interesting topics, what truly grabs my attention is when I ask them, "What’s your number?" The most common answer: "I don’t know."

But if you don’t know, who does? How much do you need to afford the lifestyle you want? What is the current value of your company? What legal structures would be advantageous? And, most importantly, how much do you need to sell your business for—after accounting for all costs and capital gains taxes—to reach your number?

Another crucial question: How much is enough?

Only after answering these essential questions can you begin to develop a solid execution plan and an accountability system to support it.

Developing a dashboard with key performance indicators (KPIs) may not be the most exciting task for event business owners, but it is, without a doubt, one of the most critical. So, how do you build your dashboard?

• Identify the lagging and leading indicators you need to measure. A lagging indicator reflects the results of past efforts, like your revenue. A leading indicator measures actions that will impact future results. For example, if you know your close rate is one out of three proposals, that one out of four meetings results in a proposal request and that it takes five calls to secure a meeting, then to win one project, you need to make 60 calls (one x three proposals x four meetings x five calls). In this scenario, the number of calls you make daily becomes the leading indicator of your future success.
• Determine how frequently you will measure these indicators.
• Assign roles and responsibilities for each indicator. Your primary responsibility is to analyze the dashboard, not necessarily to build or maintain it.

I promise that following these three steps will transform how you manage your business, helping you focus on what truly matters.

Why? Because even if you have good revenues, a robust pipeline, an effective marketing campaign and an inspiring culture, if your profit margin is too low or if you face cash flow issues, you’re driving your business into a wall at 150 miles per hour.

Less than 5% of U.S. businesses generate more than $1 million in annual revenue, and less than 1% exceed $10 million. But as you’ve probably realized by now, revenue alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

What I suggest you remember is this: Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king.