The Retainer Trap
You're paying $3K, $5K, sometimes $10K a month to an agency — and they get paid whether or not it works. Revenue comes in, and it still doesn't feel like profit, because by the time ad spend, contractors, software, and platform fees take their cut, you're left doing math you didn't expect to be doing.
Customer acquisition keeps getting more expensive. Your margins keep getting thinner. And somewhere along the way, you agreed to a fee structure or a comp split that seemed fine on paper — until you actually sat down and worked out what's left after everyone else gets paid first.
If you're being honest, the money isn't even the worst part. It's that you can't stop thinking about it — during the next launch, during dinner, during the parts of the business that are supposed to feel good. You keep running the numbers, hoping they land differently this time.