{"id":2134,"date":"2026-09-09T21:57:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T01:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heywardcpa.com\/blog\/?p=2134"},"modified":"2026-09-10T12:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:30:23","slug":"hustle-vs-strategy-do-you-have-a-north-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heywardcpa.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/09\/hustle-vs-strategy-do-you-have-a-north-star\/","title":{"rendered":"Hustle vs. Strategy: Do You Have a Northstar Number?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Plenty of entrepreneurs have businesses that appear to be doing well, but the owner feels like no money is being made. These business owners are hustling, making sales, but not building something that consistently supports their lives.<\/p>\n

Hustle keeps you active. Strategy gives you a destination.<\/p><\/div>\n

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After 17 years as a CPA working with real business owners, the gap I see most often is not effort. It is the absence of one number. I call it the Northstar number.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Before I built a firm around strategy and clarity, I owned a promotion company that worked with record labels and brands, where many decisions were made on instinct, hustle, and a lot of winging it.<\/p>\n

I learned how to start a project, create momentum, and create a great-looking outcome, but that wasn\u2019t always enough for financial success.<\/p>\n

For years, I did not understand that without a target, a goal is difficult to reach; now, as a CPA, I see entrepreneurs suffer from the same misunderstanding and have decided to help them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What Is a Northstar Number?<\/h2>\n
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Your Northstar number is the revenue your business must generate to fulfill your lifestyle needs as an owner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Not your fantasy life. Not someday. The life you are living right now.<\/div>\n
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You need to know what your business has to produce for your life to work. Everything else is downstream of that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Large companies build entire departments around this kind of target. Small businesses skip it, assuming they don\u2019t need it. They do. The only difference is that in your business, the stakeholders aren\u2019t strangers on Wall Street \u2014 they\u2019re you, your family, and everyone depending on the business to work.<\/div>\n
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Why It Starts With Your Personal Numbers<\/h2>\n
Here is the part that catches people off guard: you cannot find your Northstar by looking at your business.<\/div>\n
You find it by looking at your life first. What do you actually need to earn? What are you spending? What are you trying to save? Until those numbers are clear, any revenue target you set is a guess dressed up as a plan.<\/div>\n
The calculation has four inputs:<\/div>\n