46 Businesses. Five Lessons. What Founders Are Really Grappling With in 2026.

So far this year, I've mentored 46 businesses, working with founders, CEOs and business leaders across a wide range of sectors, sizes and stages of development.

From entrepreneurs establishing their first commercially viable business to CEOs leading multimillion-pound organisations, their individual circumstances are often very different, yet I've been struck by how frequently the same underlying challenges emerge in our conversations.

It's also been an interesting year in which to be running a business. Continuing economic uncertainty, pressure on costs, changing customer expectations and the rapid development of AI are all influencing how business leaders think about growth, investment and the future. Against that backdrop, many are having to make significant decisions without the comfort of knowing how events will unfold.

What has particularly interested me is that many of the challenges founders are facing aren't necessarily new, although the consequences of getting them wrong can be increasingly significant. Equally, the issues that initially prompt a mentoring conversation are not always the ones that ultimately need the most attention.

Reflecting on those conversations, five recurring themes stand out.

1. Opportunity is rarely in short supply, but commercial focus often is

Most founders I meet aren't short of ideas, ambition or enthusiasm. Indeed, one of the things I enjoy most about working with entrepreneurs is their ability to see possibilities that others might overlook, whether that's entering new markets, developing additional services, exploring acquisitions or finding different ways to reach customers.

However, the ability to identify opportunities doesn't necessarily translate into knowing which ones are worth pursuing, and I've seen businesses spread their resources across too many activities, creating additional complexity without achieving a corresponding improvement in commercial performance.

The same issue frequently emerges when discussing sales and business development. A business may be investing in marketing, generating enquiries, recruiting salespeople and pursuing opportunities, yet still struggle to achieve the results it expects. The immediate reaction is often to increase activity, when the more fundamental issue may be a lack of clarity about the ideal customer, the problem being solved, the value being delivered or why a prospective buyer should choose that particular business.

In other cases, there may be no shortage of enquiries, but insufficient attention is being paid to conversion rates, customer profitability or the opportunities to develop repeat and recurring revenue.

This distinction matters because generating more leads into a commercial process that isn't performing effectively is unlikely to resolve the underlying problem and may simply increase the cost of acquiring customers.

Consequently, some of the most valuable conversations I have with founders are not about identifying the next opportunity, but about establishing where the business should concentrate its resources to achieve the greatest commercial return. That often means making difficult choices about which markets, services or activities deserve attention and, perhaps more importantly, which ones don't.

Ultimately, strategy is as much about deciding where not to compete as determining where to invest.

2. The founder can become the constraint on the business they created

This is one of the most interesting and recurring challenges I encounter, particularly when working with established businesses that have reached a point where their ambitions are beginning to exceed the capability of their existing management structure.

The qualities that helped the founder establish and grow the business, including their commercial instinct, customer relationships, determination and willingness to become involved in almost every aspect of its operation, have often been fundamental to its success. However, as the organisation grows, those same characteristics can begin to limit its ability to develop.

Decisions continue to come back to the founder, senior managers seek approval rather than exercise their own judgement, and operational problems are escalated upwards instead of being resolved at the appropriate level. The founder remains exceptionally busy, frequently working harder than ever, but the organisation itself isn't necessarily becoming more capable.

Delegation is often presented as the solution, although I've increasingly come to recognise that simply transferring responsibilities to the senior leadership team can move the bottleneck rather than remove it. As those senior leaders assume greater responsibility, they must also develop the capability of the managers beneath them, who in turn need to become more confident and effective in their own decision-making.

Successful delegation therefore involves much more than distributing work. It requires a deliberate development of capability, authority and accountability throughout the organisation, supported by a founder who is genuinely prepared to allow others to make decisions.

This can represent a significant personal transition because the founder's contribution needs to evolve from being directly involved in making things happen to creating the conditions in which others can deliver results without their constant intervention.

For those looking to scale, or eventually create a business that can operate independently of them, this is often one of the most important leadership challenges they will face.

3. Revenue growth can disguise some uncomfortable truths

Growth is understandably a priority for most of the founders and CEOs I work with, although I increasingly find myself challenging what they mean by growth and, more importantly, what they expect it to achieve.

Increasing turnover is not necessarily the same as improving profitability, acquiring more customers doesn't automatically create greater value, and a business operating at full capacity is not always performing as effectively as its level of activity might suggest.

I've encountered businesses with ambitious growth objectives where the more immediate commercial opportunity lies in improving margins, strengthening operational processes, addressing customer concentration or developing a more predictable recurring-income model.

These issues become particularly important in an environment where employment costs, financing commitments and other operating expenses continue to place pressure on businesses. An increase in revenue that brings additional complexity, working-capital requirements or management demands without an appropriate improvement in profitability may not represent the progress the founder originally envisaged.

There is also an important distinction between growing a business and making it more valuable. A prospective buyer, investor or lender is likely to look beyond headline turnover and consider the quality and sustainability of earnings, the reliability of cash generation, the strength of the management team and the extent to which the organisation depends on its founder.

For some businesses, the most valuable strategic decision may therefore be to improve the economics and resilience of the existing operation before pursuing the next phase of expansion.

This doesn't suggest a lack of ambition, but rather a more considered approach to creating a stronger, more profitable and ultimately more valuable business.

4. Businesses don't always need more answers, but they do need better decisions

One observation that has remained particularly consistent throughout my mentoring work is just how well many founders understand their own businesses, even when they are struggling to make progress with a particular issue.

They often know where performance is falling short, which relationships are proving difficult, where management capability needs strengthening and which commercial opportunities might be worth pursuing. What they don't always have is the opportunity to step away from the immediate pressures of running the business and examine those issues with sufficient objectivity.

There is a natural tendency, particularly among entrepreneurial founders, to move quickly towards finding a solution. Yet some of the most useful mentoring conversations arise when we spend more time understanding the problem, testing assumptions and considering the consequences of different choices before deciding what action to take.

A challenge initially described as a sales problem may turn out to involve positioning, operational capacity or conflicting responsibilities within the leadership team. Similarly, what appears to be an underperforming manager may actually reflect unclear expectations, insufficient authority or a business structure that has failed to evolve as the organisation has grown.

In these circumstances, immediately prescribing a solution risks addressing the symptoms rather than the underlying cause.

I've become increasingly convinced that commercial performance improves when decision quality improves, and this is about much more than simply making the right choice. It requires clarity about the issue being addressed, an understanding of the available options and their consequences, and agreement about who is responsible for turning a decision into action.

Of course, even a well-considered decision will achieve little if it isn't implemented effectively, which is why ownership, accountability and a disciplined approach to execution are equally important.

In my experience, businesses rarely suffer from a complete absence of ideas or potential solutions. More often, the challenge lies in determining which decisions matter most, having the confidence to make them and ensuring that something meaningful happens as a result.

5. Uncertainty is becoming part of the job description

Economic uncertainty is hardly a new phenomenon, and experienced business leaders will have navigated numerous periods of difficult trading conditions. Nevertheless, the current combination of cost pressures, geopolitical instability, changing customer behaviour and technological development is creating an environment in which even well-established assumptions can become outdated relatively quickly.

These pressures influence far more than financial forecasts. They affect recruitment, investment appetite, pricing decisions, customer purchasing behaviour and the willingness to commit resources to new opportunities, often making decisions that might previously have appeared straightforward considerably more complex.

Against this background, there can be an understandable temptation to delay important decisions until greater certainty emerges, particularly where the financial commitment is significant or the consequences of getting something wrong are difficult to reverse.

However, the difficulty with waiting for certainty is that it may never arrive in the form or timeframe we would prefer, and delaying decisions can carry its own commercial consequences.

What interests me is how differently businesses respond to this environment. Some become increasingly cautious, concentrating almost entirely on protecting their existing position, while others continue to pursue opportunities but with a greater emphasis on financial discipline, operational resilience and the ability to adapt as circumstances change.

The latter approach doesn't mean being reckless or ignoring the risks. Rather, it involves recognising that uncertainty cannot always be removed, but the business can improve its ability to make informed decisions and respond appropriately as new information becomes available.

I suspect one of the most valuable leadership capabilities in the current environment is knowing when enough information exists to make a sound decision, rather than continually seeking perfect information that may never materialise.

So, what's the common thread?

Reflecting on the conversations I've had with these businesses during 2026, what strikes me most is that the challenges facing founders are often less about a shortage of ambition or opportunity and more about developing the clarity, capability and discipline needed to translate that ambition into sustainable commercial performance.

For some, the priority is to narrow their commercial focus and develop a more effective route to market. For others, it's about strengthening their leadership team, improving profitability, reducing founder dependency or confronting a difficult decision that has been avoided for too long.

The circumstances may differ considerably, but the underlying principle is remarkably consistent: growth rarely comes from simply doing more of everything. It comes from understanding what matters most and developing the organisational capability to execute it well.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of my work this year has been the ambition, ingenuity and determination I've continued to encounter among business owners, notwithstanding the considerable pressures many are experiencing.

There is certainly no shortage of opportunity, although taking advantage of it increasingly requires founders to think carefully about where they direct their time, resources and attention.

As we approach the final months of 2026, I think there is one question worth every founder considering:

What is the single most important change your business needs to make now to be stronger, more capable and more commercially successful this time next year?

About the author

Mark O’Neil is the founder of Kinetic Mentoring and works with founders and leadership teams on strategic decisions around growth, focus, funding and execution.

Mentor to Founders When the Decisions Get Heavy.

Clarity. Momentum. Results.