When you take on the CEO role, you expect to face challenges, strategic pivots, competitive pressures, maybe even a recession or two. But nothing quite prepares you for your first real crisis. That moment came early in my tenure and centered around a well-defined, heavily populated market. What unfolded there was a lesson in resilience, strategic decision-making and the importance of protecting the people who count on you most.

At the time, one of our largest geographic territories was struggling. Once a solid and reliable region, it began showing signs of serious distress. We started hearing concerns from franchisees. Clients weren’t renewing contracts. Revenue was in decline. And behind the scenes, we uncovered signs of operational disarray, financial mismanagement and other issues that could impact our entire brand.

It was a deeply difficult situation. The individual leading the market had built strong relationships and had been a part of our system for many years. But the market was in crisis, and it became clear that we had to step in – not just to stabilize the business, but to protect the franchisees who were left without proper support and the clients who depended on consistent service.

Related: Considering franchise ownership? Get started now to find your personalized list of franchises that match your lifestyle, interests and budget.

No playbook

After extensive discussions with legal counsel, our executive team and trusted advisors, we made the difficult but necessary decision to step in and assume control of the market to preserve the brand, our clients and the long-term interests of the system. We absorbed operations and started over without existing contracts or revenue streams.

That meant accepting a 50% loss of business in the short term. But it was the only way to re-establish trust, clean up the financial wreckage, and provide a stable foundation for our franchisees to rebuild. We initiated an all-hands-on-deck client outreach campaign, personally visiting accounts, listening to grievances and assuring them of a renewed commitment to service. Internally, we worked closely with franchisees, many of whom felt betrayed and blindsided. Restoring their confidence was as critical, if not more so, than restoring revenue. We didn’t just ask for their trust, we earned it, day by day, through transparency, reliability and responsiveness.

Related: Big Government Changes Are Coming for Small Businesses — What You Need to Know

One year felt like a decade

There were moments when it seemed like the weight of the situation might tip us over. But leadership means staying grounded when the ground feels shifting beneath your feet. It means balancing compassion with accountability and not being afraid to make hard decisions when they’re the right ones.

Eventually, a new opportunity emerged. We signed a new Master Franchise owner who was a driven, entrepreneurial leader with a passion for excellence and a deep respect for franchise operations. After a year of stabilizing the market, we entrusted it to him, and that moment marked the beginning of something extraordinary.

Under new leadership, that territory became a powerhouse within our franchise system. The turnaround didn’t just prove the model works — it raised the bar for what’s possible. The new owner turned adversity into acceleration and helped write a new chapter in Anago’s story of resilience and reinvention.

Looking back, that crisis taught me more about leadership than any business school case study ever could. It forced me to grow — and fast. It showed me the importance of empathy in decision-making, the value of acting decisively in moments of uncertainty and the power of a strong team rallying behind a shared mission.

Every CEO has their moment, the one that tests your resolve and defines your leadership. This moment was mine.

Related: I’m CEO of an International Commercial Cleaning Franchise. Here’s How I’ve Turned My Failures Into Fuel for Success.

Lessons learned

Navigating a franchise crisis requires more than quick decisions — it demands thoughtful, values-driven leadership. These are the core lessons I took away from one of the most difficult chapters of my career, each of which helped guide our brand from instability to strength.

1. Compassion and Accountability Must Coexist – Crisis leadership demands empathy and action. Acknowledging the former owner’s personal issues did not excuse the need for swift corrective measures to protect franchisees and the brand.

2. Sometimes You Have to Start Over to Move Forward – Rebuilding without the weight of bad contracts or legacy baggage (despite a 50% business loss) created space to restore stability.

3. Transparency Rebuilds Trust – Open, honest communication with clients and franchisees proved essential to weathering the storm and regaining confidence in the brand.

4. Invest in Your Franchisees – By working side-by-side with franchisees, we retained its local presence and built a stronger, more resilient regional network.

5. The Right Leadership Changes Everything – Placing the right person in charge — someone with drive, discipline, and vision — can transform a troubled market into a model of success.

Related: This College Student Pitched His Parents a Business Idea. Now, He Runs a $7 Million Ice Cream Brand.

Disney is laying off several hundred workers, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and Deadline. It’s the fourth and largest batch of cuts from the company in the last 10 months.

Deadline reports that the majority of the cuts are from the company’s corporate financial operations and Disney Entertainment’s various divisions, including film and television marketing, publicity, development, and casting.

Related: Here’s How Much 8 CEOs Made in 2024, From JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon to Disney’s Bob Iger

The Wall Street Journal notes that entire teams were not being eliminated, but the cuts span divisions globally.

Disney, which is headquartered in Burbank, California, would not disclose the exact number of layoffs this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In March, the company cut around 200 jobs, about 6% of the news workforce, mostly affecting the ABC News division in New York.

According to a filing with the SEC, Disney had around 233,000 employees at the end of September 2024. The company has cut more than 8,000 roles since 2023, per Bloomberg.

Disney reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings last month.

Related: Disney Announces Major Executive Changes, Including When CEO Bob Iger Is Leaving. Here’s What We Know.

McKinsey consultants are using the firm’s proprietary AI platform to take over tasks that have traditionally been handled by junior employees.

Kate Smaje, McKinsey’s global leader of technology and AI, told Bloomberg on Monday that McKinsey employees are increasingly tapping into Lilli, the internal AI platform the firm launched in 2023. While employees are permitted to use ChatGPT internally, Lilli is the only platform that allows them to input confidential client data safely.

Related: Salesforce Has Used AI to Reduce Personnel Costs By $50 Million This Year. Here’s Which Roles Are Affected.

Over 75% of McKinsey’s 43,000 employees are now using Lilli monthly, Smaje disclosed. Lilli was named after Lillian Dombrowski, the first woman hired by McKinsey in 1945.

Through Lilli, McKinsey consultants can create a PowerPoint slideshow through a prompt and modify the tone of the presentation with a tool called “Tone of Voice” to ensure that the text aligns with the firm’s writing style. They can also draft proposals for client projects while maintaining the firm’s standards, find internal subject matter experts, and research industry trends.

Lilli has advanced enough to take over tasks typically assigned to junior employees, but Smaje says that doesn’t mean McKinsey is going to hire fewer junior analysts.

“Do we need armies of business analysts creating PowerPoints? No, the technology could do that,” Smaje told Bloomberg. “It’s not necessarily that I’m going to have fewer of them [analysts], but they’re going to be doing the things that are more valuable to our clients.”

McKinsey told Business Insider that Lilli was trained on the firm’s entire intellectual property, encompassing over 100,000 documents and interviews across the firm’s nearly 100-year history. McKinsey employees who use Lilli turn to it 17 times per week on average, a McKinsey senior partner told BI.

A case study published on McKinsey’s website shows that Lilli answers over half a million prompts every month, saving workers 30% of the time they would have spent on gathering and synthesizing information.

Related: The CEO of $61 Billion Anthropic Says AI Will Take Over a Crucial Part of Software Engineers’ Jobs Within a Year

Consulting firms have been tapping into AI for years. Bain consultants have access to Sage, an AI chatbot powered by OpenAI. At Boston Consulting Group, employees use an AI tool called Deckster to fine-tune their PowerPoint presentations.

Meanwhile, at other companies, AI is taking over tasks once completed by human workers. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said last month that the company replaced hundreds of human resources staff with AI, then used the freed-up resources to hire more programmers and salespeople.

A report from SignalFire, a venture capital firm that tracks over 650 million employees on LinkedIn, found that new graduates accounted for just 7% of new hires in 2024 at big tech companies, down 25% from 2023, as AI takes over entry-level tasks.

It is natural to scale up quickly once your business is on track. Orders have increased, investors have shown interest, and markets have opened significantly. This moment feels like validation for many founders. However, if the speed of growth is not on track, it can damage the growth of the business that has built up through hard times.

This article draws from real-world insights shared by experienced entrepreneurs and highlights six key hidden costs founders need to be aware of when scaling quickly.

Related: Avoid the ‘Too Fast, Too Furious’ Approach to Scaling a Startup

Scaling is not just a bigger version of what you already do

One of the most common misconceptions about business growth is that it’s simply a matter of doing more: more sales, more hiring, more locations. However, increasing the scale will change the business operation structure itself. If the company size doubles, the job will not double. It often needs entirely new systems, new decision-making frameworks and a different leadership approach.

Hidden cost #1: Operational overload

Businesses that scale without preparing for operations lead to burned-out teams. The system is overwhelmed, communication stops, and errors increase. As a result, the founder manages the crisis instead of demonstrating strategic leadership.

Case in point: According to a 2024 study by Startup Genome, 70% of startups fail due to premature scaling, which increases staff and expends large sums before achieving product-market compatibility.

Hiring too quickly can hurt culture

When a company grows, the need is to hire as quickly as possible to meet its demand. However, rapid recruitment often involves the introduction of human resources that do not fit the company’s values and work ethics. The effects are difficult to measure at first, but eventually appear in productivity, confidence and turnover rates.

Hidden cost #2: Cultural drift

Culture is not a tennis table or a free snack. It is about shared understanding, accountability and clarity in how things are done. Welcoming many newcomers in a short period without onboarding or integration can reduce this clarity and cause division.

Insight: According to Gallup, companies with high employee engagement exceed other companies by 21% in profitability, but when employees feel separated from leadership and mission, engagement decreases.

More revenue doesn’t always mean more profit

Misunderstanding top-line growth as financial health is a trap that many high-growth companies fall into. Orders may increase, but the cost of new employment, software licensing, warehouse management, shipping, etc, will also increase. The rapid expansion consumes the cash at a speed that exceeds the company’s revenue.

Hidden cost #3: Cash burn

Lack of funds is not a result of poor sales. In many cases, companies proactively spend on the assumption that profits will catch up, but in many cases, they will not keep up with the expected schedule.

Real-world example: A tech startup has built three customer service teams after the rapid expansion of marketing. Within six months, the company had to lay off 30% of its employees to survive.

Customer experience often suffers

When growth overtakes internal capacity, the customer is usually the first to notice. No support ticket reply. Quality control is delayed.

Hidden cost #4: Brand reputation

When service drops, even loyal customers may lose trust. In the world of social reviews and instant feedback, bad experiences quickly spread. Restoring trust can take time, and it costs more than the initial cost to maintain service quality.

Stat to consider: According to PwC, 32% of customers say they will leave a brand they love if they have a bad experience even once.

Related: Don’t Get Slowed Down by Growing Too Fast

Founder burnout is real and underestimated

Running a business is demanding, but growing one at high speed multiplies the pressure. Founders are often forced to work long hours, make serious decisions under stress and continue to move their hands in all departments.

Hidden cost #5: Leadership fatigue

The mental and emotional burden of expanding rapidly is not discussed enough. Decision-making fatigue, anxiety and burnout lead to improper selection, team inconsistency and in some cases, complete withdrawal from the business.

Fact: According to a report by Startup Snapshot, 54% of founders are stressed about their businesses, and 72% report mental health impacts, which include anxiety, burnout and depression. Rapid expansion can amplify these challenges.

Growth without strategy creates fragile structures

Not all growth is strategic. Each new opportunity, such as new product lines, new markets and partnerships, comes without strategy.

Hidden cost #6: Lack of focus

As a result, the brand identity becomes scarce, the team with poor performance becomes thinner, the priority conflicts increase, the execution is slower, and the consistency decreases.

Quote from experience: One health brand founder says, “Less than a year later, I was afflicted by returns and chargebacks, and the margin was reduced to zero by half the transaction. We are not able to do that.”

Indicators you’re scaling too fast

If your business shows more than two of these signs, it might be time to pause and re-evaluate:

• Team delivery delays are increasing

• Customer claims are increasing

• Staff turnover is rising

• Leadership is getting weaker

• Cash position deteriorating despite increased sales

Related: Don’t Ignore These 3 Principles When Your Company Is Growing Fast

What successful founders recommend

Smartly scaled entrepreneurs often share several repeated themes:

1. Build systems early: Build order without waiting for confusion

2. Track real margins: Understand each new order or customer cost honestly

3. Grow headcount slowly: Focus on the right people rather than just increasing the number of people

4. Know when to say no: Not all growth opportunities meet the burden of the company

5. Keep culture visible: Enable new employees to understand company values and how to make decisions

Growth is not the enemy — but unmanaged, unchecked or misaligned growth can undo years of progress. Scale expansion should not be reactive, but deliberate. It should support the core strengths of the business and not be separated. This is the true lesson from experienced entrepreneurs. Sometimes saying “no” today means preserving the chance to say “yes” tomorrow. Business should grow, but not sacrifice the soul.

For the past 26 years, JPMorgan has released a summer book list that caters to the interests of its high-wealth clientele. This year, a special committee looked at more than 1,000 reading suggestions from JPMorgan’s client advisors and came up with their 16-book list.

Darin Oduyoye, chief communications officer for JPMorgan Asset and Wealth Management, who also oversees the list, told CNBC that this year’s selections were focused “around the power of curiosity.”

“You can think of it from a reflection standpoint or transformation standpoint,” Oduyoye said.

Related: 5 Books Every Small Business Owner Should Read

Oduyoye said that they took input from family offices and looked at titles that aimed to prepare the next generation of leaders. Family office respondents were concerned with finding a balance between growing wealth and doing things that positively impact communities.

The list includes Shigehiro Oishi’s “Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life,” which explores happiness and finding meaning in life (the Wall Street Journal called the author’s enthusiasm “infectious”), and Suzy Welch’s “Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career” and its related 13-step plan.

The list also includes “Raising AI: An Essential Guide to Parenting Our Future” by De Kai, which explores AI’s impact on how we live now (and will live in the future).

Here are seven more titles from the list. For the complete summer syllabus, click here.

Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working by Dan Heath

Iron Hope: Lessons Learned from Conquering the Impossible by James Lawrence

The Tell: A Memoir by Amy Griffin

Coming of Age: How Technology and Entrepreneurship are Changing the Face of MENA by Noor Sweid

The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West by Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska

Inevitable: Inside the Messy, Unstoppable Transition to Electric Vehicles by Mike Colias

MirrorMirror: The Reflective Surface in Contemporary Art by Michael Petry

Related: Four Books Recommended For Current and Aspiring Entrepreneurs

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Gusto, the payroll and benefits company, found that SMBs that are fully remote tend to have higher scores across almost all performance indicators. Of course, it would probably help if everyone used the same software. Right now, the best office suite option for small businesses has to be this one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 for family or up to six users that’s on sale for just $99.99. That’s 23% off the normal $129 subscription price.

The best thing about a Microsoft 365 subscription is that you know the programs are always up to date with the newest innovative features because you get them as soon as they are released. Communication is a breeze; up to 300 people can join group video calls on Microsoft Teams and talk for up to 30 hours. Also, each user gets 1TB of secure cloud storage and can use up to five devices of their own simultaneously, including computers, phones, and tablets.

Applications include Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, Clipchamp, MS Edito,r and Microsoft Defender. They can help you with spelling and grammar, offer royalty-free creative content, and so much more.

The real gamechanger, though, is Microsoft’s AI-powered productivity assistant Copilot. Its AI features are integrated seamlessly into the Office programs to save you time and effort by helping you work smarter and more efficiently. Microsoft Copilot can even automate tasks!

Security is another huge perk of Microsoft 365. Advanced features protect all of your files, and all of the Outlook features that help you stay organized are backed by the most robust security tools.

Plus, you can’t beat the flexibility of this suite of programs. You can use it on almost any type of PC, Mac, Android phones and tablets, iPads, and iPhones. Not only can you collaborate in real-time, but you can also work offline. It’s no wonder Microsoft 365 has a 4.7 out of 5 stars rating on both GetApp and Capterra.

Get a one-year subscription to Microsoft 365 for a family, or up to six users, while it’s available for only $99.99, a 23% discount.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

PDFs are a business essential — Adobe, the creator of the file format, estimates that more than 2.5 trillion PDFs are created each year. Easily creating, editing, and converting PDF files makes doing business smooth and seamless, but to make it happen, you need the right tool.

That’s where PDF Expert comes in. This award-winning app unlocks all the PDF functionality you need to keep business going, and right now, you can get a lifetime subscription for $79.97, 42% off the $139.99 regular price.

Editing tools that do it all

There’s a reason PDF Expert was named an Editor’s Choice pick from Apple, and why more than 30 million people rely on it worldwide: It packs a comprehensive set of tools into one easy-to-use PDF editor.

That includes creating PDFs from JPGs, PNGs, Word files, Excel spreadsheets and even PowerPoints — or taking PDFs and making them into image files, editable documents, and spreadsheets and presentations.

But PDF Editor goes way beyond creation. Use the program to highlight and comment on existing PDFs or fill out forms. You can also use it to change text, or add images and links into the file. It also supports managing pages, splitting multi-page files into separate documents, and merging separate PDFs into one.

You can even use this program to enhance scanned files, and crop and split pages to suit them to your needs. And maybe most usefully of all, you can use the program to add your signature to critical documents like invoices, contracts, or agreements.

The fine print

This deal is for new users only, and is only valid for Macs. If that describes you, however, it’s a great deal — this subscription is good for use on an unlimited number of personal Mac products.

Your team already uses PDFs everyday. This is a golden opportunity to make their jobs easier and their workday more productive, for a price you won’t beat.

Get a lifetime premium plan subscription to PDF Expert for $79.97 (reg. $139.99).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TikTok’s algorithm has been infamously called “addictive,” with research finding that it is “highly engaging and emotionally rewarding in nature,” which has led to compulsive (and lucrative) user numbers. It’s also why the algorithm is a main point in the ongoing saga of the app potentially being banned in the U.S. if it isn’t sold soon.

But billionaire Frank McCourt Jr., 71, tells Entrepreneur in a new interview that he and his business partners are “completely ready to buy TikTok” — and they “don’t need or want the algorithm.”

The former L.A. Dodgers owner and investor, who’s worth $2.4 billion, said that China has “made it very clear” they’re not selling it.

“So we’re in a good position if there is a transaction,” McCourt said.

Related: Emma Grede Dropped Out of School at 16. Now the Skims Boss Runs a $4 Billion Empire — Here’s How.

After last year’s law passed requiring TikTok to separate from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, or face a permanent ban in the U.S., the potential to own TikTok has attracted a slew of interest from notable people and companies. (After multiple extensions, the new deadline is June 19.)

McCourt announced his $20 billion offer for TikTok in May 2024, calling it The People’s Bid for TikTok. He made the bid through Project Liberty, the $500 million initiative he founded in 2021 that focuses on creating a better Internet by giving users control over how they share their data. Over time, other public figures joined his bid, the most notable being Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary in January and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in March. But so far, there haven’t been any updates.

“We’re on standby,” McCourt said.

Other bidders for TikTok include AI startup Perplexity, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, mobile advertising company AppLovin, and Amazon. McCourt said O’Leary called him after talking to all the potential bidders and determining that The People’s Bid was ahead of the rest. Ohanian connected with McCourt through a mutual friend, and also ended up publicly backing the bid’s mission.

^{Frank McCourt Jr.}

Why Frank McCourt’s Bid for TikTok Is Different

McCourt is working towards creating a new Internet, and TikTok is a stepping stone to get there.

McCourt’s bid is focused on the social media app’s 170 million users. He wants to migrate those millions of people and their data over to an open-source platform that both preserves TikTok’s user experience while also using an American-built tech stack.

The basis of this platform is called the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP), which Project Liberty developed and first made public in 2021. DSNP stores individual data in a profile that a user can transport across a network of social apps. Users on the platform can take their connections and content, their personal data, from one DSNP app to another and dictate the terms of its use.

“We’re advocating for a new, better, advanced Internet where individuals own and control their identity and their data,” McCourt said. “We’re in charge, and our social information is ours to share with others as we see fit.”

Right now, the only social media app that uses DSNP is MeWe, which has more than 20 million users globally and began offering members the option to sign in with DSNP in September 2022. Now, McCourt wants to bring the protocol to TikTok’s 170 million users as well.

“We need to scale DSNP for it to be a true alternative, and that’s what TikTok would do,” McCourt said.

McCourt outlined a future where social apps will be interoperable, and users will be able to tap into their network no matter which social app they are logged into. So, someone on MeWe could talk to someone on TikTok, or share a link with them without logging into an account just for that one specific app.

Related: 3 Simple Steps to Start Making Money on TikTok

McCourt compared the situation to how phone numbers are now interoperable. A person using AT&T can call someone on Verizon without worrying about whether their call will go through.

“Imagine an Internet where that’s the case, where you can be on one app and I could be on another, and we’ll be able to share information,” McCourt said.

McCourt noted that gathering $20 billion for the bid was “quite easy” because “people saw the value” of the offer. And if The People’s Bid doesn’t end up being selected, McCourt isn’t ruling out developing a competing social media app.

“We may,” he said. “At some point, we just need to move forward.”

More than 50% of entrepreneurs fund their companies with retirement savings, and another 20% use personal savings, according to data from Guidant Financial. Under those circumstances, every penny has to count, so you won’t be splurging on expensive software just because you think it would be nice. However, if you can get an affordable, powerful operating system designed specifically for professionals to turbocharge productivity and offer maximum security, you shouldn’t pass that up. That’s precisely what you get while Microsoft Windows 11 Pro sells for only $14.97.

Everyone from designers to developers will appreciate this operating system, but entrepreneurs who must always be effortlessly connected will be particularly happy with it. Convenience was a priority for Windows 11, and the sleekly intuitive user interface is as friendly as it gets. Yet, the advanced security features will help you sleep easier at night. You’ll get a biometrics login, encrypted authentication, advanced antivirus defense, and so much more.

Tools to increase productivity abound, from a far more robust search experience to improved voice typing, seamless redocking, snap layouts, and more. Unique features to optimize your professional tasks are found throughout the system, such as BitLocker device encryption, Windows Sandbox, Hyper-V, Azure AD, Smart App Control, TPM 2.0, Windows Studio Effects, and more.

Of course, hard-working professionals are also entitled to their downtime, and Windows 11 Pro provides unprecedented gaming features. You’ll enjoy DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics that maximize your hardware to provide amazingly realistic graphics so you can play all the latest games to their peak potential.

Features such as Widgets and Microsoft Teams are also built in. You can even ditch the mouse and keyboard because the Touchscreen function will still give you a genuine computing experience. However, the superstar in this system is Copilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant. It answers questions, changes settings, opens apps, generates code suggestions and images, kicksstart your writing process, and more.

Get Microsoft Windows 11 Pro while it’s available for just $14.97.

StackSocial prices subject to change.