By: John S. Morlu II, CPA
Starting a business is like falling in love. It’s exciting, passionate, and full of dreams. You’ve got the idea, the logo, the website, the Instagram handle—and maybe even a desk in your garage next to your lawn mower. You’re feeling unstoppable. You even ordered business cards with gold trim—because obviously, you’re about to be the next Jeff Bezos.
Then comes scaling—and suddenly, you’re not in a rom-com anymore. You’re in a horror film titled: “Who Approved This Expense?” Spoiler alert: It was you. You approved it. Last Tuesday. At 3AM. While eating cold cereal straight from the box and trying not to cry.
Let’s talk about growing pains—the awkward, stressful, and sometimes hilarious stage between starting up and succeeding wildly.
Fun Fact #1: Scaling is not just growth—it’s controlled chaos.
It turns out, building the thing was the easy part. Scaling is when you have to build the plane while flying it, serve coffee while fixing the espresso machine, and answer customer complaints while training a team that thinks Slack is a dating app.
Your ‘office’ suddenly needs an HR policy, your inbox has 3,000 unread emails (20% of which are from your own mother asking if you’ve slept), and your favorite employee just told you they’re leaving to “find themselves” in Bali.
And let’s not forget your new hires—some of them came highly recommended, and others were clearly hired by your cat walking across the keyboard during your 4th Zoom interview.
Example: Elon Musk & the Model 3 Meltdown
Even Elon Musk, with all his billions and satellites, described Tesla’s Model 3 production phase as “production hell.” At one point, the man was literally sleeping on the factory floor—probably cuddling with a wrench like a teddy bear—eating cold pizza, and debugging robots himself. And that wasn’t even during Mercury retrograde. That was just Tuesday.
Stat Snack:
70% of startups fail within 10 years, and scaling is one of the biggest culprits. Because building something small and cute is easy. Like a pet hamster. Scaling it is like turning that hamster into a 400-pound gorilla that needs enterprise software, KPI dashboards, and a payroll of 47 people who want health benefits.
According to Startup Genome, 74% of startups fail because they scale too soon. That’s like proposing on the first date because the Wi-Fi worked and she said, “You’re funny.”
Real Talk: Scaling Feels Like Betrayal
At first, it’s you and your ride-or-die team pulling all-nighters, sharing ramen noodles, and high-fiving every $200 sale like it’s a lottery win.
Then you raise a little money. You move into a “real office” (which is really just a basement with chairs from Craigslist). But then…it happens.
Some employees burn out. Some grow impatient. Some start side hustles selling soap on Etsy. Others start applying for jobs at bigger companies that offer things like “mental health days” and actual weekends off (traitors!).
And sometimes, they leave right before the rocket takes off. It hurts. It’s like being dumped by your prom date the day before the limo shows up.
The Few. The Brave. The Loyal.
But someone has to keep flying the plane. That’s when you meet the loyalists—those quiet heroes who stay, grind, and figure out how to turn your napkin-sketched ideas into actual systems.
These are the people who know where the company skeletons are buried, and they’ve decided to bury a few of their own dreams alongside yours. They eat stress for breakfast, skip lunch, and somehow still show up the next day asking how they can help.
Example: Sara Blakely and the Fax Machine Fiasco
Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, started with $5,000, no fashion experience, and one big dream: comfy underwear. She worked full-time, sold fax machines door-to-door by day, and hustled Spanx by night.
At one point, she personally answered customer calls using a fake assistant voice. “Hi, this is Susan,” she’d say. There was no Susan. There was only Sara, a phone, and a strong will to win. She faxed contracts from hotel lobbies and probably cried into her Spanx once or twice. Now she’s a billionaire who owns part of a basketball team.
Moral of the story? If your assistant is imaginary, you’re on the right track.
Fun Fact #2: Most overnight successes take 10 years.
Jeff Bezos didn’t become a billionaire overnight. Amazon sold books for years—quietly losing money like it was a sport.
Amazon reported its first quarterly profit in Q4 of 2001—about seven years after it was founded in 1994. It wasn’t until 2003 that Amazon posted its first full-year profit, almost nine years after its launch. That’s nearly a decade of explaining to confused relatives at Thanksgiving why you’re still in business but haven’t bought a yacht yet.
Same with Airbnb. In the early days, the founders literally sold cereal boxes labeled “Obama O’s” and “Cap’n McCain” just to pay rent. Today, they’re running a global empire built on people renting out their guest bedrooms and garden sheds.
Common Sense Tip: Scaling is a loyalty test.
Scaling reveals everything: Weak systems, flimsy missions, employees who only joined for the snacks.
The “yes men” vanish. The over-promisers under-deliver. And people who said they’d stick around forever suddenly ghost you like a bad Tinder date.
But those who remain? Those are your generals, your glue, your ride-or-dies. Reward them, cherish them, tattoo their names on your spreadsheets.
The Payroll Panic
You never knew fear until you saw $40,000 disappear from your bank account on payday—and you’re the one who transferred it.
No one told you entrepreneurship included monthly heart attacks.
The stress is so intense you start negotiating with your coffee cup: “Just give me one more week of focus and I’ll switch to decaf. I swear.”
Embrace the Growing Pains
Yes, it hurts. People leave. Processes break. You might cry in the bathroom (or in your car, or into your burrito).
But pain means progress. Scaling isn’t just about getting bigger. It’s about getting better—stronger systems, smarter teams, sharper missions.
It’s when your cute little startup starts going through puberty—pimples, voice cracks, mood swings and all. But if you push through? You’ll come out the other side with a business that’s not just surviving—but soaring.
Final Fun Fact:
Growing pains mean you’re still growing. The only thing that doesn’t feel growing pains is a dead business.
So embrace the awkward. Build through the chaos. And if all else fails—fake an assistant named Susan and keep moving.
About the Author
John is an entrepreneur, strategist, and founder of JS Morlu, LLC, a Virginia based CPA firm with multiple software ventures including www.FinovatePro.com, www.Recksoft.com and www.Fixaars.com . With operations spanning multiple countries, John is on a mission to build global infrastructure that empowers small businesses, entrepreneurs, and professionals to thrive in an increasingly competitive world. He believes in hard truths, smart execution, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. When he’s not writing or building, he’s challenging someone to a productivity contest—or inventing software that automates it.
