Out of cash
You ran out of cash after 7 decisions. Most of those calls may have looked reasonable on their own, which is how it usually happens.
The pressure eases quickly, and your costs jump before revenue does.
Play againCheck your real numbers
What each decision was about
The big customer wants a discount
You chose: Give them the full discount.
Customer concentration turns every negotiation into a risk decision.
A star leaves for a rival
You chose: Offer a smaller raise and a path to lead the team.
One person holding the relationships is a business risk long before they resign.
AI pitch at the board table
You chose: Run one supervised pilot on a real workflow.
AI value comes from a specific workflow with clean data and an owner, not from an announcement.
Slow-paying customers
You chose: Take a line of credit and leave it alone.
Profit and cash are different things, and receivables are often the cheapest cash you can find.
A shiny new market
You chose: Go all in.
Expansion is a focus decision first and a revenue decision second.
The quality problem
You chose: Tell all 40 customers and fix it for free.
Trust is usually lost in how you respond, not in the original mistake.
Your team is exhausted
You chose: Hire three people now.
Capacity problems look like motivation problems until you measure them.