Mike AndesFounder, Augusta Lawn Care and Homeworks · Founder of Homeworks and Augusta Lawn Care

I Studied Every Closed Business These 2 Reasons Keep Coming Up

9 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, Mike Andes explains his method of analyzing closed businesses by reviewing turnaround shows and specific failed companies such as Augusta and Home Service Web Design. He identifies two dominant patterns that repeatedly cause business failure: (1) an outward appearance of busyness that conceals fundamental financial problems—poor pricing, weak cash flow, and bloated payroll—especially once revenue exceeds the $1 million mark; and (2) rapid growth that outstrips the owner’s leadership capacity, leading to managerial idiosyncrasies, employee disengagement, and customer repulsion. Andes emphasizes that these issues become especially pronounced as businesses scale, and he frames them as the primary reasons he observes across multiple closures.

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Bucket a few of these items or take it in any direction you want, but bucket a few of these items that you see that you feel like are common now, common reasons why people, their business won't work out.
What I actually did yesterday is I looked at all the Turnaround Shows and then I actually looked at all the locations of Augusta have closed and then I looked at all the locations of Home Service Web Design that we've seen them close their business. And because they get so busy, it hides the big problems of the business like bad pricing, bad cash flow, bloated payroll, especially as they get past a million. Second one was they grow past their ability to manage. A lot of times, like, I have to just be honest, like, they grew the business past their personal capacity as a leader, whether it be they grew too fast or they just had idiosyncrasies or issues or ways of leading and managing that caused people not to want to work for them. It repelled customers. And unfortunately, still see that as like a big reason people fail, especially they start to really grow. They just don't have the skill of leadership.