The 10-10-80 Spend Audit
10% of spend is untouchable, 10% is waste, and the 80% in the middle is where profit hides.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
The 10-10-80 Spend Audit is a simple recurring profitability practice. Look at everything you spend money on and recognize three buckets: about 10% is essential and untouchable, about 10% is spending you probably don't need today, and a large 80% sits in the middle. Being a little more efficient with resources — cutting the unnecessary tenth and scrutinizing the middle — steadily improves profitability. Seckler extends the same logic to headcount: a 10-person team may perform better as an 8-person team because coordination is easier and top performers gain energy when surrounded only by other high performers. The audit is meant to be run on a regular basis, not just once.
Origin
Asked for one actionable piece of advice to become more profitable, Seckler offered this efficiency lens. It reflects his broader belief, drawn from decades of operating, that profitability often improves not through more revenue but through disciplined resource questions asked regularly — about subscriptions, software, and whether every person on a team is playing at a high enough level.
Core principles
- 01Roughly 10% of your spending is essential and can't be touched.
- 02Roughly 10% is spending you probably don't need today.
- 03A large middle 80% deserves regular scrutiny for efficiency.
- 04Smaller teams of high performers can outperform larger mixed ones.
How to run it
- 1
Inventory all spending
List everything you spend money on — subscriptions, software, and employees.
Pro tip Do this on a regular basis, not as a one-time cleanup.
- 2
Isolate the essential 10%
Identify the roughly 10% of dollars that is essential and cannot be touched.
- 3
Cut the unnecessary 10%
Find the roughly 10% you probably don't need to be spending today and eliminate it.
- 4
Scrutinize the middle 80% and the team
Examine the large middle for efficiency, and ask whether every team member is playing at a high enough level.
Pro tip A team of 8 can beat a team of 10 — coordination is easier and top performers gain energy from other high performers.
Watch out Cutting for efficiency should raise the performance bar, not gut essential capacity.
In the wild
Seckler notes that some 10-person teams would be better as 8-person teams, because coordinating with eight people is easier than ten and high performers get more energy when surrounded only by other high performers.
→ Trimming to a tighter team of strong performers can raise both output and morale while improving profitability.
Common mistakes
Never auditing spend
Letting subscriptions, software, and headcount accumulate without regular review leaves easy profitability on the table.
Keeping teams larger than needed
Oversized teams add coordination cost and drain the energy of top performers who are surrounded by less-committed people.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and operators looking to improve profitability through disciplined efficiency.
Not ideal for
Early-stage teams that are already lean and under-resourced rather than bloated.
From the transcript
“there's 10% of those dollars that is essential that you can't touch and that there's probably 10% of dollars that maybe you don't need to…”
“there are sometimes teams with 10 people that would be better with eight people because coordinating things with eight people is easier than with 10…”
From the episode
Mike Seckler: How to Build a Business That Thrives When Others Fail
Mike Seckler