602 – Why Your Business is Stuck
The How of Business - How to start, run, grow and exit a small business.
Henry Lopez, Levante Business Group
4.7 • 522 Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How profitability and scalability constraints in your business model keep you stuck and how to diagnose and remove them to finally grow.
Show Notes Page: https://www.thehowofbusiness.com/602-why-your-business-is-stuck/
If your business feels stuck - you are working hard but not breaking through - you may be dealing with hidden constraints in your business model.
In this episode, Henry Lopez explains why most small businesses don't fail outright but instead get trapped in a perpetual startup stage. The root cause is often not effort or resources, but structural limitations in profitability or scalability or both.
Henry breaks down the two pillars of a healthy business model and shows you how to diagnose what's really holding your business back. He also introduces a simple tool to help you identify these constraints and begin addressing them – The Business Model Evaluation Tool – available on the show notes page for this episode.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- The difference between a business idea and a business model
- Why working harder won't fix a broken business model
- The top reasons small businesses struggle with profitability
- The most common scalability constraints
- How to identify whether your business model can be fixed or you need to pivot
- How to begin removing the constraints keeping you stuck
This episode is hosted by Henry Lopez. The How of Business podcast focuses on helping you start, run, grow and exit your small business. The How of Business is a top-rated podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Find the best podcast, small business coaching, resources and trusted service partners for small business owners and entrepreneurs at our website https://TheHowOfBusiness.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the How of Business with your host, Henry Lopez, the podcast that helps you start, |
| 0:05.9 | run, and grow your small business. And now, here is your host. |
| 0:12.5 | Welcome to the How of Business podcast. This is Henry Lopez. Do you feel like your business is stuck? |
| 0:17.5 | You're working hard, maybe making some money sometimes, but never nearly enough. |
| 0:22.1 | Do you feel like you're never quite breaking through to the next stage? Well, what may be keeping |
| 0:27.2 | you from growing your business to the next level are critical constraints in your business model. |
| 0:32.2 | And on this episode, I'll hope you begin to identify what's really holding you back. Is it profitability, |
| 0:39.3 | is it scalability, or is it both? And I'll show you how to diagnose and start removing those constraints so your business can |
| 0:44.6 | finally grow past the never-ending startup stage. You can find all of the How-W business resources, |
| 0:50.6 | including a new tool that I'll talk about in this episode, the business model |
| 0:54.3 | evaluation tool, on the show notes page for this episode, and also learn more about my |
| 0:58.7 | one-on-one and group coaching programs at the howabusiness.com. I also invite you to join the |
| 1:03.4 | how-a-business community on Patreon and subscribe wherever you might be listening, so you don't |
| 1:07.9 | miss any new episodes. If you've been in business for a while, maybe a year |
| 1:12.1 | or two years, and you still feel like you're struggling just to stay afloat, then you may still be |
| 1:17.2 | stuck in a perpetual startup stage because your business model is not healthy. And so many owners |
| 1:22.0 | believe that, well, I just need more time, or I need to make some more investment. I just need |
| 1:26.2 | more money. If I can just get |
| 1:27.9 | more customers, obviously, if I could just spend more on marketing, then I'll break through. But the |
| 1:32.7 | real issue is often not a lack of effort or even a lack of resources. Well, of course, we're all |
| 1:37.9 | constrained by resources as small business owners. But the reality is that your business model is |
| 1:42.9 | not working yet, or the reality |
... |
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