At a Glance

• Small-ticket margins are thin by design; the business only works on volume, and volume only works if per-deal cost stays low.
• Most small-ticket operations run a scaled-down version of a large-deal process, carrying manual touches the unit economics cannot absorb.
• The fix is not faster people; it is removing people from the decisions and steps that do not require judgment.
• Many operations cannot state their own cost-per-funded-deal accurately, which means they cannot see the leak.

The Math That Doesn’t Survive a Manual Touch