Overwhelmed entrepreneurs can clarify priorities by categorizing every issue as either a supply or demand constraint. A demand constraint is needing more leads and sales. A supply constraint is being unable to fulfill existing orders. This binary focus clarifies the company's single most important priority.

The tension between growth and profitability is best resolved by understanding your product's "runway" (be it 6 months or 6 years). This single piece of information, often misaligned between teams and leadership, should dictate your strategic focus. The key task is to uncover this true runway.

Startups with lukewarm demand must have a perfect go-to-market process. In contrast, when you find intense demand where customers are pulling the product from you, the rest of your "factory" (pipeline, sales, delivery) can be messy and still function, allowing you to iterate and improve.

The clearest indicator that a side hustle is ready to become a full-time business isn't just profit, but substantial top-line revenue generated with limited, part-time hours. If a business can generate over $150k in sales from weekend work alone, it demonstrates massive untapped potential and product-market fit, signaling it's time to take the leap.

Legora's founder felt "fake product market fit" when a single presentation generated 150 demo requests. True PMF only arrived after rebuilding the product to be scalable and reliable, proving that intense initial interest doesn't equal a sustainable business.

Instead of making a large, debt-heavy leap like buying a new property, founders facing a capacity bottleneck should identify the smallest possible step that meaningfully increases output. This could mean subletting space or a short-term lease to test new capacity before committing significant capital.

The decision to leave a day job isn't just about replacing your salary. The true tipping point is when your part-time commitment is actively holding the business back, making the opportunity cost of not going all-in riskier than the leap itself.

Applying the Theory of Constraints, a startup's growth is limited by a single bottleneck in its factory (pipeline, sales, or delivery). Improving onboarding is useless if you have one sales call a month. All focus must be on solving that single constraint to make progress.

If your business can fulfill current demand but you're worried about future capacity, always choose to generate more demand first. The influx of cash and urgency creates the necessary pressure and resources to solve supply-side problems like hiring and training more efficiently.