Fiscal conservatism has its place, depending on the business's specific risk profile, but it's not any better a way to conduct business than taking some financial risks.
There's a reason my mum is familiar with YouTube but not ww.com - they took risks that Jacques elected not to.
It's not fair to say (and I note that you didn't say this, I'm just concluding my point) that fiscal conservatism is the better way to conduct business because it would have avoided the OP's situation, any more than it's fair to say the better way is to take financial risks because survivor bias demonstrates it worked for YouTube.
