What Is Broken Process Costing Your Business?
In the companies I work with, broken and missing process costs 5 to 10% of profit a year. This free Profit Leak Calculator shows you yours in about two minutes, and tells you which of the five leaks is taking the most.
Your numbers, your estimates. No sign-up to start.
Your leak so far, per year
$0
$0 every workday
Stop the Leak
Start with the five leaks
Every business leaks profit through broken and missing process. The only question is how much. That's the range below. It's not your number.
“In the companies I work with, teams lose 5 to 10% of their profit to broken and missing process.”
Five quick questions. About two minutes. We start you on typical numbers, so slide them until they look like your company. Watch the meter up top.
Leak 1 of 5 · Leadership time
"Got a minute?" It's never a minute.
Every "quick question" pulls a leader off their own work, and getting back on track takes far longer than the question did. When the process lives in someone's head, the questions never stop.
Interrupted work “was resumed, on average, in 23 minutes and 15 seconds.”
Use your own number. Some interruptions take longer.
Leak 2 of 5 · Turnover
Good people, gone.
When nobody knows the "right way," training is a coin toss and good people leave. How many left in the last 12 months?
Replacing an employee “can range from one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary.”
Leak 3 of 5 · Customers
"It depends who you get."
Customers notice when the experience changes from one person to the next. How many walked in the last 12 months because of it?
32% of customers would stop doing business with a brand they loved “after one bad experience.”
Leak 4 of 5 · Rework
Doing it twice.
Redos, errors, scope creep, the "we'll eat that one." Every fix eats margin on work you already sold.
“One project with no documented process cost our remodeling company more than $500,000 in hidden costs.”
Leak 5 of 5 · Institutional knowledge
"Only Jordan knows how to do that."
Time your team spends asking around, searching, or inventing their own way because the process lives in someone's head.
Workers spend “nearly 20 percent” of the workweek looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues who can help. That's one day a week.
Optional · About your company
So we point you to the right next step.
Skip any of these. Add your profit to see your leak as a share of it.
Your annual profit leak
$0
In the companies I work with, the range is 5 to 10% of profit. Your full breakdown shows where you land.
What would you and your business do with $0 a year?
Pick any that fit. It goes into your breakdown.
Your full breakdown includes:
- What each of the five leaks costs you, ranked
- Your biggest leak and where to start
- Your leak as a share of profit
- The right next step for your company's size
- The detailed spreadsheet, emailed to you
Enter your name and email below. Your breakdown opens on the next page, and the spreadsheet comes to your inbox.
Sources: Lisa Gonzalez, co-author of Process! (5 to 10% profit leak); Gloria Mark in Gallup Management Journal, 2006 (interruptions); Gallup, 2019 (turnover); PwC, 2018 (customer loss); McKinsey, 2012 and Panopto, 2018 (institutional knowledge). The numbers are your estimates. Treat them as a conversation starter for your leadership team.
Questions
About the Profit Leak Calculator
What does the Profit Leak Calculator do?
It estimates what broken and missing process costs your business every year, in dollars. Five questions, about two minutes. You get an annual figure, what that works out to per workday, and which of the five leaks is taking the most.
Do I need my exact numbers to use it?
No. The calculator starts you on typical numbers and you slide each one until it looks like your company. Estimates are enough. The point is the size of the problem and where it sits, not an audited figure.
What are the five profit leaks?
Interruptions, turnover, customer loss, rework, and tribal knowledge. Interruptions are the got-a-minute questions that pull your leaders off their own work. Turnover is good people leaving because training is a coin toss. Customer loss is clients who go because the experience depends on who they get. Rework is doing the job twice. Tribal knowledge is work only one person knows how to do.
How does the calculator work out the number?
Each leak uses a plain formula built from what you enter. Rework hours times labor cost. Customers lost times what a customer is worth in a year. Onboarding weeks times salary. The five results are added together and shown as a yearly total and a per-workday total.
Is 5 to 10% of profit a real figure?
In the companies I work with, teams lose 5 to 10% of their profit to broken and missing process. That is what I see across workshops and consulting engagements, not a published statistic. The starting ranges behind each of the five leaks come from Gallup, PwC, McKinsey and Panopto, and they are cited on the calculator itself.
Do I have to give my email address?
Not to get your number. The calculator runs free and ungated from the first question to the total. You enter an email only if you want the in-depth version, which includes pre-built formulas and the fixes matched to your results.
Unlock The Profit Leak Calculator!
You'll be redirected. Then, check your inbox for an in-depth calculator with pre-built formulas and fixes based on your results.
No fluff. No guesswork. Just clarity.
