Ask a business owner how many vendors they pay every month and most will say “six, maybe seven.” Then they open their bank statement.

The real number is usually much higher once you count everything — payroll, benefits, the insurance policies that renew on four different dates, the software subscriptions nobody remembers signing up for, the bookkeeper, the IT guy. [Placeholder stat — replace with David’s sourced figure: industry data puts the average SMB around 29 vendors.]

Here’s a quick way to find your real number. Pull the last three months of bank and card statements and highlight every recurring charge tied to running the business. Don’t filter — just count. Most owners are surprised, and a little annoyed, by what they find.

Why it matters isn’t the count itself. It’s what each vendor costs you beyond the invoice: a separate login, a separate renewal date, a separate person to chase when something breaks. That’s the hidden tax — not the money, the management.

The fix isn’t fewer services. You need payroll, you need insurance, you need software. The fix is fewer relationships — one advisor who holds all of it, so the number of things you personally track drops to one.