The 2-hour audit that tells you if your knowledge business is leaking money

Most creators audit their marketing constantly and their costs never. Here's a simple audit you can do in about two hours that usually finds $500-2,000/year in leaks.

Step 1: List every recurring tool (15 min)
Every subscription touching your business: platform, video hosting, scheduler, email, design tools, Zoom. Write the monthly cost and what it's actually for.

Step 2: Mark the overlap (15 min)
The classic leak: paying for a course platform AND Zoom AND Calendly AND a landing page builder, when a single integrated platform covers three of those. Every "temporary" duct-tape tool tends to become permanent.

Step 3: Compute your fixed cost per customer (30 min)
Total monthly fixed costs ÷ customers this month. If you have 4 customers and $150/month in tools, each customer costs you $37.50 in software alone before you deliver anything. That number should horrify or reassure you — both are useful.

Step 4: The break-even check (30 min)
For each platform you're paying monthly, calculate the sales volume where a commission-only alternative becomes more expensive. Example: $99/month vs 5% commission breaks even at $1,980/month in sales. Below that volume, the commission model is mathematically cheaper. Above it, fixed wins. Most creators have never run this number on their own business.

Step 5: Kill or consolidate one thing (30 min)
Just one. The audit that ends with "interesting, everything is fine" is a failed audit.

Full disclosure: I run iLoquio ($0/month, 5% per transaction, courses + live + 1-on-1 in one place), so I obviously have a view on step 4. But the math is the math regardless of which tools you compare — run it on your own stack and see what falls out.

When did you last audit your tool costs against actual revenue?