There are three ways to increase profit in a software business (where the cost of materials, shipping, &c., are essentially zero): Charge more, increase customers, or reduce waste.
Raising prices is probably not a viable option, at least not in a world where price is often arbitrary, and you have competitors who are happy to undercut you.
Increasing customers requires a laser focus on providing something that a potential customer finds valuable. (That doesn't have to be a big thing. I'm happy to pay $20/month for a small product that saves me $30/month.) Time spent working on things that do not add perceived value is a liability because that work does not bring in new customers. It's money out without counterbalancing money in—overhead. In fact, overhead work is a 2x hit—the cost of the non-value work and the opportunity cost of not spending that time building something that can increase profit.
Reducing waste is the low-hanging fruit for increasing profit, and waste comes in many forms. Low-quality code and unnecessary complexity, for example, increase maintenance time and make simple changes take longer, which reduces profit. The lack of a solid architecture does the same thing. Lots of dependencies, handoffs, and context swaps all reduce profit. Too much WIP reduces profit. People working in isolation reduce profit. Volumes have been written on reducing waste, but most managers seem to be unaware of the fact or don't care.
Oddly, profit-increasing changes are often met with considerable resistance. I hear, "That won't work in the real world." The fact is that in the real real world, you can't afford not to make the changes.
Source: x.com/allenholub/status/1849521298055070073