When you are planning to scale a business, it is crucial to establish the necessary infrastructure and support systems to facilitate growth. Before making any changes to your business, it is essential to assess your current state and readiness for growth.
The entrepreneurial spirit can engulf you at any time. It might have started when you first jotted down your business ideas on a cocktail napkin or wrote daily journal entries. This spirit becomes the driving force behind your business and helps you turn your startup into a blossoming small business model.
However, as time passes, the importance of when and how you became one with the entrepreneurial spirit seems to fade away.
Scaling a business involves setting up the necessary infrastructure and support to facilitate growth within your company. It means being able to grow without any hindrances. This requires planning, funding, suitable systems, staff, processes, technology, and partners.
When you scale a business, it’s essential to plan, secure funding, and implement the right staff, systems, processes, technology, and partnerships to enable and support growth without constraints.
What does it mean to scale a business?
The concept of “scale” in business refers to boosting revenue faster than costs. Companies accomplish this objective through various means, such as incorporating new technologies or identifying inefficiencies in their processes to streamline operations.
Starting with the most prevalent differentiation between these two concepts, we usually associate growth with linearity, wherein an organization acquires more resources, such as capital, personnel, or technology, which boosts its revenue. In contrast, scaling refers to an increase in revenue without a significant escalation in resources.
‘How to scale a business’ = Startup 2.0
Scaling a startup requires the same level of enthusiasm and energy that was needed to launch it successfully. At the beginning stages of scaling, there will be many questions and concerns that need to be addressed. But just like a shark must keep moving to survive, a startup must keep growing to succeed.
Leading a scaling process is not unlike a military general devising a battle plan. The moves made by entrepreneurs and leaders of corporate giants have similarities with the operational procedures of military leaders throughout history. Sun Tzu’s Art of War is a classic text that scholars and leaders quickly embrace in the business community.
Sun Tzu’s quote, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win,” is particularly relevant in this context. The book’s warfare principles can be applied to business leadership, and it can help maximize your business service offering as you scale up.
Tip #1 – Get the timing, product, and service offering right
Scaling up a business requires careful consideration and planning. It’s essential to ensure that the timing of this move aligns with the necessary steps to improve your product and service offerings to meet your intended expectations and goals. Additionally, it’s crucial to consider how these changes will impact your competitors and how you can differentiate yourself from them.
Your focus should not only be on improving your market share but also on providing value to your primary customers. They have helped create your current situation, and it’s essential to ensure that they will benefit from your growth. Reaching out to your existing customers and reassuring them of their importance to your business is critical. As you grow, you may need to improve your current products or introduce new product lines to expand your customer base.
Tip #2 – Review your pricing and business model
When your client base grows, it’s a sign that you’re ready to scale up your business. However, this also means that you must re-evaluate all aspects of your business, including adding new walls, ensuring that weight-bearing walls are in place, and shoring up your infrastructure. It’s essential to set new goals and procedures to support this growth.
During this process, it’s also an excellent time to review your pricing structure and marketing strategies. Scaling up may require an advertising budget, either for business-to-business or business-to-consumer marketing, or both.
It’s essential to consider how social media will fit into your scale-up plan. For example, revamping your website to include blogs, videos, or a monthly podcast that caters to your customers’ needs and offers product/service discounts is a great way to improve your digital marketing strategy. You can easily share this content on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media outlets and forums.
Tip #3 – Scale a business for growth when you’re ready!
To scale a business, you must be fully prepared and avoid procrastination, inactivity, or prolonged delay. Trust your entrepreneurial instincts to lead you to success. Marketing, sales, service, and production must convey the same message. It would be best to understand which services and products are essential to each client.
Before scaling, have your marketing professionals research your customers to understand better their service needs and the additional services they seek that align with your company’s growth strategies. Crunching this data may kickstart your scalability efforts or lead to re-addressing the move until you can comfortably answer customers’ concerns and desires.
As Sun Tzu said, “Plan for what is difficult while it is easy; do what is great while it is small.”
Can your business accommodate growth?
Congratulations on deciding to expand your business! However, the next challenge you’ll face is figuring out how to scale your business for growth. Even if you manage to sell a lot, you’ll soon encounter another issue: you need to be able to deliver to all your new customers. Capacity and capability determine scalability.
Suppose growth causes your company to stumble due to confusion, orders slipping through the cracks, inadequate staff, miscommunication, or insufficient manufacturing or delivery capacity. In that case, your customers will not be happy. The manual processes sufficient when you were small will no longer allow you to move quickly enough. Both are stressful. You’ll either be putting out fires or desperately trying to keep your head above water.
Scaling a business entails creating an environment that supports and enables growth in your company. It involves being able to grow without being restricted. It necessitates planning, funding, and the proper systems, staff, processes, technology, and partners.
Ready to scale a business for growth
Growing pains are inevitable when transitioning from a startup to a scaleup. However, once you establish the following three critical factors, your business development should become significantly easier.
If you’re a business owner looking for guidance and inspiration, Score.Org, based in the US, offers helpful tips. Tony Robbins’ blog is also an excellent resource, providing access to many factsheets, motivational videos, and expert advice to help you navigate the complexities of running a successful business.
If you struggle with building your business, look for future scaleup articles that can provide additional assistance.
Get in Touch with Noirwolf
Are you feeling stuck and unsure of how to grow your business? Look no further because our small business consulting and leadership coaching services are here to help! We will work closely with you to scale your operations and achieve your goals. To ensure our services are a good fit, we offer a free one-hour consultation.
To get started, contact Noirwolf today using our website’s contact form, email us at enquiries@noirwolf.com, or call us at +44 113 328 0868.
