Smaller companies that have experienced substantial success often assume that the next logical step is to scale their business, and rightfully so. However, successfully scaling a business involves careful planning to ensure that your business can handle the growth.
One of the first problems people often unknowingly encounter when scaling their business is confusing growing a business with scaling one. When we say that a business is growing, we’re saying that it is increasing revenue and resources equally. Scaling a business is when a company increases its revenue at a rate disproportionate to the speed the resources are growing.
In essence, scaling allows for total revenue without increasing the necessary resources involved in servicing customers. What business owners need to know about scaling their business is that successful scaling means your business can handle the growth it is experiencing. Change is great, but if you haven’t taken the necessary steps to prepare for this growth, your company’s success could be its downfall. So seeing that your business has proven successful and you have greater ambitions for it, your next step is to find ways to begin scaling your business.
Know Your Vision
The value of truly understanding your vision for your company is important. A strong vision for your company means understanding who your target demographic is, how you can best reach them, what success for your company looks like in the future, and how you can get there.
Without a strong vision, your company will stall, leading to a lack of growth, direction, and meaningful work among you and your employees.
So, if you want to scale your business, perform an honest assessment of your company’s vision before taking any steps. If you decide that your vision is lacking, consider implementing these steps to strengthen it.
Identify Your Barriers
Once you have a clear understanding of where you want your business to go, your next step is to assess what challenges that may lie in your way as you begin to scale.
To reach your goals, you must be able to utilize unrelenting honesty. Assess how your business currently functions and ask yourself if any aspects of your business are slowing down your progress.
Are you poorly organized? Are you a good leader? Is there a lack of funding? Asking yourself questions like these will allow you to attack problems hindering your growth and better fortify yourself against future problems.
Delegate or Step Aside
When individuals begin their businesses, they tend to do so alone. As a company starts to scale and more responsibilities arise, the value of being able to delegate becomes more and more apparent.
While your ability to handle everything yourself might have worked when your business was smaller, it becomes less likely that you will be able to manage every task that needs to be done.
While it may be difficult, practice stepping aside and letting employees you trust manage certain tasks, doing so will allow you to spend more time on tasks only you can complete.
Expand Your Team
As you scale your business, you will quickly find that you cannot possibly handle every task on your own. To grow your business sustainably, you must expand your team. Because scaling a business involves many moving parts, it may be essential for you to expand and establish your team as early as possible so that you and your team can scale your business together.
Remember that when you scale your business, you will naturally begin reaching out to more suppliers, clients, or partners and that they are all a part of your team. Ideally, the goal is to maintain the relationships you’ve already built while expanding to include a variety of new relationships. A solid team will ensure your business stays balanced and managed as you scale.
Enhance Your Brand
Your brand is not only what your consumer sees when they interact with your business, but in a broader sense, it is also the feeling they get when they think of your business.
Brand identity cannot be understated as it determines how customers interact with your product or service. So ask yourself if your brand is fully realized or if there is work to be done. Does your brand have a strong voice or identity? Is your brand connecting with the desired demographic? Your brand will influence every aspect of your business, so if it is not well-developed, you’re setting yourself back.
Begin Scaling Now
Scaling a business poses inherent risk and struggle simply due to increased moving parts. However, if you are considering scaling your business, you are already well acquainted with the difficulties that being a small business owner provides.
Scaling a business is all about long-term sustainability. So long as you can maintain your original vision for your company while implementing these strategies, you will see the growth you’ve been aiming for. So make your plan and start scaling today.
