Are You Solving the Right Problem? episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 24, 2026 · 8 MIN

Are You Solving the Right Problem?

from The Handcrafted Podcast: The Business of making things · host Paul Mencel

Explore the Network.SummaryBusiness owners often jump straight into fixing whatever problem seems most obvious—but that may not be the problem actually holding the business back.In this episode, Paul shares how he thought Philadelphia Table Company needed a salesperson, only to realize that sales weren’t the bottleneck at all. The real issue was production capacity and an increasingly long queue.Before hiring, changing your product, chasing more leads, or making a major pivot, trace the problem back to its actual source. More leads won’t help if you can’t close them. Better products won’t fix bad customer service. New employees won’t solve a broken system.Key takeaways:Don’t confuse the symptom with the actual problem.Identify where the bottleneck really exists: leads, sales, production, delivery, service, systems, etc.Don’t default to the easiest or most obvious solution.Give big decisions time—sleep on them and revisit them with a clear head.Business is a constant game of Whac-A-Mole. Solve the right problem, then move on to the next one.Join the Network

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 24, 2026

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Explore the Network. Summary Business owners often jump straight into fixing whatever problem seems most obvious—but that may not be the problem actually holding the business back. In this episode, Paul shares how he thought Philadelphia Table Company needed a salesperson, only to realize that sales weren’t the bottleneck at all. The real issue was production capacity and an increasingly long queue. Before hiring, changing your product, chasing more leads, or making a major pivot, trace the...

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Are You Solving the Right Problem?

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This episode was published on August 24, 2026.

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