The $10 Million Bottleneck: What’s Really Holding Back Your Growth

A founder recently told me,

“We’re growing faster than ever — but I feel like we’re constantly one mistake away from breaking everything.”

It’s a familiar story. Many businesses hit a “$10M bottleneck” — that stage where sales are up, the team is bigger, but operations start straining under the pressure.

The good news? It’s not a dead end. It’s a signal.

The Hidden Friction Points in Fast Growth

When companies scale quickly, a few things tend to happen behind the scenes:

• Teams rely on tribal knowledge — not systems.

• Reports are scattered across spreadsheets.

• Purchasing decisions are made without visibility into cash flow.

• Founders get pulled into every decision because no one else has full context.

Sound familiar?

This is the tipping point where growth can stall — or take off — depending on how you respond.

Why Founders Can’t Fix It Alone

At this stage, what you need isn’t more effort — it’s more structure. A Fractional COO steps in to translate your strategy into clear, scalable systems.

They bring in:

• Process visibility (so you can finally see what’s working and what’s not).

• Data-backed planning (so cash flow and inventory move in sync).

• Accountability frameworks (so the team executes without micromanagement).

It’s the difference between running the business and being run by it.

From Chaos to Clarity

One of our clients — a fast-growing CPG brand — was stuck in this exact cycle. They had a strong product, loyal customers, and growing revenue… but operations were reactive.

Within 90 days of embedding a Fractional COO, they had:

• Weekly scorecards for every department.

• Forecasts that aligned finance and operations.

• Clear accountability across the team.

Revenue continued to rise — but stress dropped dramatically.

The Takeaway

If your business feels like it’s running on adrenaline instead of rhythm, you’ve likely hit the $10M bottleneck.

You don’t need to slow down — you just need to scale smarter.

That’s what we do at Kedia Consultants: bring operational structure, financial clarity, and leadership discipline to help businesses scale with confidence.