Book 1 · Charting Your Harbors
The Sounding Sheet
The six harbors and the ladder you score them against. Two sides of one page — that's the whole thing. Print it, sit down for ten minutes, and put a number in each box.
Free. No signup, no email address, nothing to join. If you want the long version afterwards, the eight-page Harbor Worksheet and the live builder are both there. You don't need either one to start.
Printing tip: US Letter, portrait, 100% scale. Set it to double-sided and it comes out as one sheet.
The Vibe Entrepreneur · Book 1 · Charting Your Harbors
The Sounding Sheet
Six harbors. One honest number each. Side 1 of 2.
Before you score — define your business, then name your water
Peter Drucker’s three questions, from Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973).
Every business runs on the same six harbors. Read the question, give it a number from 0 to 10, and move on — first instinct, no deliberating. The ladder on the back tells you what the numbers mean. Score where you are today, not where you are heading.
- Human Capital — your crewTalent, team, and leadership depth — the people who sail with you.If your top person quit tomorrow, is there an obvious next person to step into their role without skipping a beat?
- Acquisition — your marketMarketing and sales working together to bring new prospects into the harbor.Could you spend $5,000 on advertising tomorrow and know exactly where?
- Reputation — your brandHow you are known — trust, reviews, and your position in the market.Could a stranger tell what you stand for in thirty seconds?
- Build — your productWhat you offer — the product or service itself, its quality and its edge.Can you describe the primary product or service your customers buy from you, in one sentence, without using the word "and"?
- Operations — how you runSystems, processes, and infrastructure — the ship running without heroics.Do you know what your projected bank balance will be ninety days out?
- Retention — your customersWho stays — loyalty, lifetime value, and the customers who come back.When a customer goes quiet, does anything happen?
Now circle the lowest number. That is the harbor costing you money right now, whatever your instinct says. Turn over for what the numbers mean.
The Vibe Entrepreneur · Book 1 · Charting Your Harbors
What the numbers mean
The same ladder for all six harbors. Side 2 of 2.
- 0–2It doesn't exist. Nothing built, nothing written down.
- 3–4It lives in your head. It happens when you make it happen, and stops when you're busy.
- 5–6It's built, but inconsistent. It works when the right person is watching.
- 7–8It runs without you. Written down, handed off, steady.
- 9–10It's a moat. A competitor with real money couldn't match it inside a year.
Three rules for scoring honestly
- Score today, not the plan. What exists right now, running without you pushing it. Not what you have been meaning to build since spring.
- If it lives in your head, it is not a 7. A thing only you can do is a dependency, not an asset. Written down and repeatable is what clears the middle of this ladder.
- The one you are proudest of is rarely the one that is hurting you. Pride and depth are different measurements. Score the harbor, not your feelings about it.
The three that are mandatory in each harbor
Ten elements feed every harbor. These three are load-bearing — a harbor cannot sit above the middle of the ladder while one of them is missing.
| Harbor | The three that must be there |
|---|---|
| Human Capital | Talent Identification · Hiring Process · Culture & Operating Norms |
| Acquisition | Customer Targeting · Digital Presence · Search & Reviews |
| Reputation | Brand Keel · Visual Identity · Reviews & Recommendations |
| Build | Product Definition · Quality Standards · Pricing & Packaging |
| Operations | Financial Operations · Legal & Compliance · Standard Operating Procedures |
| Retention | Customer Onboarding · Customer Success / Account Management · Churn Diagnosis |
Three at a time, never six. Pick the lowest, and two others you can actually work on this quarter. The other three keep running; they are not being dredged. When one comes up, swap another in.
The full build manual for a harbor — every element, every tier, worked start to finish — is the eight-page Harbor Worksheet, and the live builder saves your work as you go. Both are free at thevibeentrepreneur.com/setsail. You do not need either one to start.