Growth doesn’t always arrive with warning. One day the phone rings a few times. The next, it doesn’t stop. Orders triple. Systems bend. What felt scrappy and agile now feels brittle. A quick win turns into a backlog. Teams stretch thin, decisions stack up, and suddenly the small business that ran on instinct needs rhythm, systems, and stamina. This kind of surge exposes more than it rewards. It shows what’s ready — and what’s not. And if the foundation is soft, scale becomes a stress test, not a