David asks: "I started my business 11 months ago and it's still losing money. I'm sure it's just the startup stage—my sales haven't caught up to my expenses yet. I feel like I just need more sales, but I'm bleeding cash. I think I'm lean. You'll tell me to cut expenses, but I don't want to cut marketing, VAs, or technology. If I cut those, I've wasted my time."

In this episode, Scott reveals why "I just need more sales" is rarely the right answer when you're bleeding cash, how to distinguish between investments (marketing that returns multiples) and expenses (overhead that doesn't), and why protecting sunk costs will kill your business faster than cutting them. You'll hear Scott's own lean startup story about managing leads with index cards, learn how to think about VAs correctly (per-task, not per-month), and face the stark choice every bootstrap founder must make: lose your time investment or lose your business.

The bottom line: Cut expenses now. Protect the dream, not the automations. You can always rebuild systems—you can't rebuild a dead business.

Got a business question? Ask Scott here: scotttodd.net/ask