The six most expensive words in business: "That's how we've always done it."
I've built operational software for restaurants and distributors. Every implementation surfaces the same pattern: businesses ask for solutions, then resist changing the processes that created their problems.
Like hiring a personal trainer, then arguing when they suggest you stop eating donuts for breakfast.
The Real Cost
The Cannabis Dispensary
A dispensary with declining sales refused to change their SMS strategy: daily blasts at 8:45 AM. Same message, same time, every day.
47% unsubscribe rate. Testing different times and segmenting was obvious. The manager's response? "Our customers expect to hear from us in the morning. That's how we've always done it."
Their competitor sent personalized texts at varying times and grew year-over-year.
The Franchise Company
A holding company spent $180K/year on local TV commercials for a millennial-focused fast-casual restaurant.
Their target audience had abandoned TV for streaming. The marketing VP: "TV worked great for our senior-focused brand, so it'll work for this one too."
$180K/year on commercials nobody watched while competitors dominated the platforms their customers actually used.
The Furniture Dealer
A furniture store hit a $3M revenue ceiling. The bottleneck? The owner. Every decision required his approval—vendor selection to stapler color.
Solution: management systems and delegated authority. His reaction: physical recoil.
"I need to approve everything personally. That's how we maintain quality."
Result: 80-hour weeks, operational bottlenecks, and employees leaving for competitors with actual systems.
Why It Persists
Comfort. New approaches require learning and risk. Old approaches, even failing ones, feel familiar.
Ego. Changing a process means admitting it wasn't optimal. For many leaders, this feels like a personal attack.
Fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of losing control. Fear that a new approach might work better and expose the cost of not changing sooner.
How to Fix It
Make the cost clear. Most businesses obsess over the risk of change while ignoring the risk of standing still. Quantify it: "Your current approach is costing you $27,000/month compared to industry benchmarks."
Numbers cut through emotional resistance.
Start small. That dispensary eventually tested messages to 10% of their list at 4 PM instead of morning. Open rates jumped 38% in a week. That win opened the door to broader changes.
Hire people who challenge you. The furniture dealer broke through when he hired an operations manager from outside the industry who asked "why?" about processes everyone else took for granted.
The Reality
Your competitors aren't standing still. Every day you cling to "the way we've always done it," the gap widens.
Your customers don't care about your comfort zone. They'll happily go to competitors who prioritize results over routine.