These 6 Business Problems Keep Showing Up

_{[Read time: 3 minutes]}

I keep seeing 1-2 person businesses run into the same operating problems.

6 of them.

Over and over again.

And they are the reason business owners can’t sleep at night.

Here they are:

1 — Prices are based on fear.

Most pricing decisions are driven by fear.

• Fear of overcharging

• Fear of losing clients

• Fear of hearing “no”

But pricing isn’t just about covering costs.

It’s the biggest lever you have to increase profit, yet it’s rarely set strategically.

2 — Business functions are siloed.

Most solutions don't address the whole business.

A business is an interconnected system. Marketing, sales, finance, ops, and admin don't operate "separately."

A change in one always impacts another.

That means solving a marketing problem with a marketing solution often misses the bigger picture.

I’ve seen good solutions fail because they don’t account for the ripple effect.

And that means wasted time and money.

3 — The “craft” takes priority over being an owner/operator.

Most owners see themselves as their customers do:

• Writers think of themselves as writers

• Coaches think of themselves as coaches

• Marketers think of themselves as marketers

But when you default your identity to the customer view, you get stuck in the craft-trap (trying to improve the services over steering the business).

"Be so good they can't ignore you" is often misunderstood.

4 — They don't know the maximum the business model can actually generate.

Most owners assume their business can earn more than it’s designed for.

I’ve seen people set impossible goals — like aiming for $200K when the model maxes out at $127K.

When you don’t understand your limits, you waste time, energy, and resources, leading to frustration and burnout.

5 — How owners think they spend time is way different than what the financials reveal to be true

Most think they’re more efficient than they really are.

Financially speaking, when time leaks, money leaks.

I'm not saying you need to be a robot, but when you think you do one thing and the numbers don't work out (you get super frustrated with yourself).

Clarity prevents chaos (even if it's clear that you do things slower than you should be).

6 — Expense creep goes unnoticed.

Even businesses with high margins can lose profit to inefficiencies.

The higher the margin, the easier it is to become lax.

There will always be costs that hide.

Unused subscriptions, redundant tools, and unnecessary fees chip away at your bottom line.

No business is immune to waste.

2025 just started.

Start the year by putting an end to these problems.

See you next week.

— Peter