Find the Number Before 69,000: Predecessor Problem

To solve this problem, we'll follow these steps:

• Step 1: Identify the given number, which is $69,000$.
• Step 2: Find the number that comes before it by subtracting 1 from 69,000.

Now, let's work through each step:
Step 1: The given number is $69,000$.
Step 2: To find the preceding number, we calculate $69,000 - 1$.

Calculating this, we have:
$69,000 - 1 = 68,999$

Therefore, the number preceding $69,000$ is $68,999$.