In 2014, Georgene Huang was the picture of what most women would describe as “having it all.” She was the head of enterprise business for one of the world’s largest financial information companies. Her resume was peppered with leadership roles at such prestigious companies as Lehman Brothers and Bloomberg, as well as degrees from Cornell and Stanford Universities.

2008 was a rough year for a lot of people. Zachary Rose was one of them.

The year was 2016, and everything was going great for entrepreneur Adam Watson. His furniture business, Design 55, was generating $3 million in annual sales and on track to double in size in the year ahead.

Rebecca Sato never meant to become an entrepreneur. 

Ah, inventory. The bane of a retailer’s existence. Whether you sell clothing, car parts or cat food, inventory is a necessary evil. But it’s much more than that; it’s an important business component that, when managed effectively, can help you maintain tight margins and trim overhead. When managed poorly—or not managed at all—it can be a money pit.

Any business is only as good as its systems. You might have the best business concept in the world, but without systems, you’ll never be able to grow the operation to scale in an efficient and profitable way.