the confession
We built a score. We retired it.
Solor Stream used to have a health score: one number from 0 to 100, blended from revenue, retention and a few other signals. Founders liked it, and that was exactly the problem. It flattered people. Two businesses could both read 71 (one bleeding customers with strong margins, one growing fast on empty pockets) and the number smiled at both of them equally.
A single score has to hide which leg is broken; that is what blending means. So we killed it, and we will not bring it back. What replaced it is smaller and more honest: three questions, each answered on its own, against bars you set.
the three checks
Do the three checks hold?
One: do you keep a real profit margin? Not revenue; what stays after everything, including your own pay. A business that only works while you work free has a hidden loss in it.
Two: do you hold a few months of cash? Enough that a bad month is a fact, not an emergency. What counts as enough depends on how lumpy your income is. You know that better than any calculator.
Three: do you pay yourself properly? This is the check founders skip, and it quietly falsifies the other two. If you would earn more working for someone else, that gap is a cost your margin is not admitting.
Notice what the verdict refuses to do: it will not total the three checks into a grade. The failing check is the finding. A business is not 71% fine. It is fine except for the specific thing that isn’t, and that thing has a name.
where this page ends
This page is the monthly health check. The deeper cash question (how many months you actually have, run three honest ways) lives in its own note: how many months of cash do I actually have?
two moves
Run the three checks with real numbers today.
Margin from your last three months, cash from your bank tab, your pay from what actually reached your personal account. Estimates defeat the point: the whole exercise is fifteen minutes with the real figures.
Book a monthly date with the same three numbers.
Twenty minutes, first Monday of the month. The value is not any single reading: it is that the answer stops being a feeling and starts being a trend you have watched with your own eyes.
straight answers
The questions founders ask about this.
Is there a single score that tells me if my business is healthy?
No, and be wary of anyone selling one. We built a 0-100 health score and retired it, because a blended number has to hide which part of the business is broken. Three checks answered separately work better: whether you keep a real profit margin, whether you hold a few months of cash, and whether you pay yourself properly.
Why did Solor Stream retire its health score?
Because it flattered people. Two very different businesses could get the same score (one with a customer problem, one with a cash problem) and the single number hid both. The score was replaced with three separate checks against thresholds the founder sets themselves, and a verdict that names the weakest check instead of averaging it away.