The real cost of manual work you've stopped noticing

The processes costing a growing business the most are usually the ones nobody questions anymore.

Every founder-led business picks up manual workarounds in its early years, and often for good reason. It's the fastest way to get moving. The cost shows up later, once headcount has grown and the workaround has quietly become three people's part-time job. Spotting it takes someone from outside, because the team doing it stopped noticing a while ago.