When Growth Becomes the Problem

Nobody complains about growing too fast. Until they're living it.

More orders. More people. More complexity. And somewhere in there, the systems that worked fine at $2M start groaning under the weight of $8M — the spreadsheets, the “just ask Dave,” the pricing that was set by feel five years ago.

Growth doesn't create problems out of nowhere. It just puts a magnifying glass on the cracks that were already there — inconsistent quoting, undocumented processes, tools that don't talk to each other. At $2M, those cracks cost you a little sleep. At $10M, they cost you real money and real margin.

The businesses that scale well aren't the ones without cracks. They're the ones who go looking for them before the growth forces the issue.