Sometimes the smartest way to grow a business is to make it smaller.

Sometimes the smartest way to grow a business is to make it smaller.

What Cue's struggles can teach every business owner about cutting costs, simplifying operations and protecting what matters.

Yesterday, we learnt that another 26 Cue and Veronika Maine stores are closing across Australia and New Zealand.

The iconic Australian fashion business entered voluntary administration and receivership in September, after increased sales and operational improvements reportedly weren't enough to overcome its overhead costs.

The brands are still trading while receivers work through potential sale options, and I genuinely hope there's a positive outcome for as many employees, suppliers and customers as possible.

Nearly 60 years of Australian fashion history deserves more than a sad headline.

But it got me thinking about something I've learnt over almost two decades of running Adorn Cosmetics.

Sometimes the biggest threat to a business isn't a lack of sales. It's the cost and complexity of running the business you've built.

And sometimes the smartest growth strategy is to stop growing things that aren't making you money.

Now, I don't know the internal finances of Cue. I'm certainly not suggesting a few cancelled subscriptions could have prevented its collapse.

But I do know how easily costs creep into a business.

Another software subscription. Another product variation. Another agency. Another warehouse. Another process that requires three people, four spreadsheets and a minor miracle to complete.

Before you know it, you've built yourself a very expensive job managing complexity.

And the worst part?

You can be working harder, selling more and making less.

Cutting the fat doesn't mean cutting the heart out of your business.

When business gets tough, the instinct is often to cut staff, reduce marketing, slash prices or chase more sales.

Sometimes those decisions are necessary.

But before cutting the people who make your business work, I'd be looking under every rock for the money that's quietly disappearing.

And I don't mean the usual advice about turning off the lights and cancelling Netflix.

I mean questioning the way the entire business operates.

Here are 12 things I'd audit.

1. The complexity tax

How many products, services, variations, departments or processes exist simply because they've always existed?

Run a report on your bottom 20% of products or services by contribution profit, not just sales.

Then calculate what each costs to maintain, including storage, administration, photography, customer enquiries, ordering and management time.

The idea: Give every product or service a complexity score. If something contributes very little profit but requires enormous effort, simplify it, combine it or discontinue it.

A smaller range can sometimes produce a healthier business.

2. The software graveyard

Most businesses are paying for software that overlaps with something else.

A marketing platform that does email. Another that does SMS. Another that manages customer data. Another that provides reporting.

And, naturally, all four claim to be essential.

The idea: Audit software by function, not provider. Map every feature you're paying for and identify duplication. Then check whether you're paying based on contacts, seats, orders or usage you no longer need.

Don't just cancel apps. Consolidate workflows.

3. The customer profitability illusion

Your biggest customer isn't necessarily your best customer.

Some customers buy regularly, pay promptly and rarely need support.

Others require constant discounts, special treatment, multiple deliveries and enough customer service to qualify as a part-time employee.

The idea: Calculate contribution profit by customer segment after discounts, delivery, returns, payment fees and servicing costs.

You may discover that the customers generating the most revenue aren't generating the most profit.

4. The returns and complaints goldmine

Every return, complaint or repeated customer enquiry is potentially telling you where money is being wasted.

Perhaps your website isn't explaining something properly. Perhaps packaging is causing damage. Perhaps customers are buying the wrong variation.

The idea: Give every return and complaint a reason code, then calculate the total cost of each recurring problem.

Fix the cause rather than continually paying for the consequence.

5. The warehouse full of sleeping money

Inventory sitting on shelves isn't an asset you can use to pay wages tomorrow.

It's cash wearing a cardboard box.

The idea: Measure stock by age, cash tied up and realistic sell-through probability.

Could slower-moving products become bundles, samples, corporate gifts or components of another offer?

Could suppliers provide smaller, more frequent deliveries?

Could some products move to pre-orders or consignment?

The objective isn't simply to clear stock. It's to stop creating the same problem again.

6. The marketing that looks successful but isn't

A campaign can have a beautiful return on advertising spend and still lose money.

Particularly once discounts, product costs, fulfilment, agency fees and repeat-customer cannibalisation are considered.

The idea: Audit campaigns by incremental contribution profit, not revenue or platform-reported ROAS.

And ask one uncomfortable question:

Would some of those customers have purchased anyway?

7. The cost of saying yes to everything

Custom orders. Special requests. Exceptions to policy. One-off services.

They're often introduced with good intentions.

But every exception creates another process.

The idea: Track every non-standard request for a month and calculate its cost.

Then create standard packages, minimum order values or appropriate fees for work that genuinely costs more to deliver.

Being helpful shouldn't mean being unprofitable.

8. The expensive habit of doing things twice

How often does your team enter the same information into multiple systems?

How many reports does your team manually create every week?

How often does someone fix a mistake that could have been prevented upstream?

The idea: Run a 'touch count' audit. Choose 10 common tasks and count how many times a person or system handles them from start to finish.

Reduce unnecessary handovers before buying another automation tool.

Sometimes the best automation is simply removing a pointless step.

9. The premises that no longer fit the business

Warehouses, offices and retail stores can become expensive reminders of what a business used to need.

The idea: Calculate the fully loaded cost per productive square metre, including rent, utilities, insurance, maintenance and labour associated with the space.

Could you sublease part of the space with approval? Could stock be consolidated? Could certain functions move to a third-party provider?

And most importantly, would you choose the same premises if you were starting today?

10. The hidden cost of too many suppliers

Having more suppliers isn't always better.

Multiple freight providers, packaging manufacturers, agencies and service contractors can create unnecessary administration and fragmented purchasing power.

The idea: Map total spending by supplier and category, then explore consolidation, shared freight, cooperative purchasing with complementary businesses or better terms in exchange for predictable orders.

But don't consolidate so aggressively that one supplier failure puts the entire business at risk.

11. The founder bottleneck

This one's uncomfortable.

How much does it cost the business because everything needs the founder's approval?

I've certainly been guilty of thinking nobody could do something quite as well as I could.

Occasionally I was right. Frequently I was just making myself very busy.

The idea: For one week, record every decision that requires your involvement.

Separate decisions that genuinely require your expertise from those that could be governed by clear rules, spending limits or documented processes.

Freeing up the founder isn't just about working fewer hours. It's about creating capacity to make better decisions.

12. The business you'd build if you started again tomorrow

This is my favourite exercise.

Forget what you've already spent. Forget how long you've done things a certain way.

Imagine you had to rebuild your business tomorrow, with the same customers, brand reputation and product knowledge, but none of the existing overheads.

Would you employ the same structure?

Would you sell every product?

Would you rent the same premises?

Would you use the same technology?

Would you operate through the same distribution channels?

The idea: Design a zero-based version of your business, then compare it with what exists today.

The difference between those two models is where some of your biggest opportunities may be hiding.

And one final audit: What should you absolutely NOT cut?

This is just as important.

Your best people. Your customer relationships. Product quality. Safety. Compliance. The things that make your brand worth choosing.

Cutting costs that damage trust or customer experience can make an already difficult situation worse.

And if a business is struggling to meet its financial obligations, cost reduction alone may not be enough. That's when early, qualified restructuring and financial advice becomes essential.

My final thought...

I have enormous empathy for founders facing difficult decisions.

Running a business is not for the faint-hearted. And anyone who thinks every business failure comes down to poor management has probably never had to make payroll.

But I also believe we have a responsibility to act early, ask uncomfortable questions and protect the people who depend on our businesses.

Employees, customers, suppliers and families.

A smaller business that is profitable, sustainable and pays its bills is worth far more than a bigger business that looks impressive but is slowly bleeding cash.

Sometimes you don't need another marketing campaign.

You don't need another product.

You don't need another consultant telling you to scale.

Sometimes you need a calculator, a very large coffee and the courage to ask:

If I stopped doing this tomorrow, would anyone actually notice?

And if the answer is no, perhaps you've just found your first saving.