Scaling your business is a delicate process. You want your business to grow exponentially, but you also need to ensure that the growth is sustainable and supportable by your company practices. The sustainability piece is vital – setting up your business to support sustainable development is the only way to scale over the long term.
The big question from business owners is, “How can I grow sustainably without causing a part or all of my business to crumble when it comes under pressure?” That is what we are addressing in this article.
Ten Strategies for Scaling Your Business
When you tackle sustainable business growth, it’s vital that you think about your entire company. Scaling your business doesn’t only mean increased production and sales. It means that the whole business must grow to support those aspects of company growth.
Here are ten tactics you can use to scale your business effectively and sustainably:
1. Systematize
Creating, documenting, and using business systems is the best way to support sustainable business growth. Scaling your business is all about creating excellent supports for company growth, and that’s what effective systems do.
Business systems should map out what particular departments do, from the broad strokes to the individual steps that must be performed to accomplish a project or task. They should be easy to understand and accessible to all who need to use them.
Finally, a business system should be updated periodically to incorporate any production improvements, software upgrades, or new steps.
2. Establish your goal
“Growing and scaling” is constantly touted in business circles. But what does that mean to you? What would sustainable growth look like this year, next year, in five years? Talk to your team and discuss the overall goal, as well as subgoals that you can all work toward along the way.
3. Think strategically
“Think strategically” is the kind of generic advice that you constantly hear in business circles. What does this advice mean?
According to the “Oxford Languages” dictionary, the word strategic means “relating to the identification of long-term or overall aims and interests and the means of achieving them.”
When we talk about thinking strategically, we are discussing establishing long-term goals, deciding how to achieve them, and then taking those necessary steps. Often, a business owner or team will create wonderful goals and a great strategy but then fail to implement the strategy as they get carried away with the day-to-day. This is something to consider as you work toward scaling. Creating goals and strategy is nice. But, the execution of the strategy is what is paramount.
4. Consider each part of your business as you scale
All parts of the company will grow – customer service, accounting, and others. Make sure that’s something for which you plan. Suppose you hire a new sales team and add three new products to your company offerings. In that case, you will need to ensure all support departments have the staff to provide the necessary help to ensure success.
5. Cut out inefficiencies
There are many ways to reduce inefficiency. For example, documenting processes and procedures will make a significant difference to the efficiency of your company. Other ways to reduce inefficiency include:
- Automating as much as possible.
- Reducing redundancy.
- An easy-to-access website that requires the fewest clicks possible.
- Take in feedback to find out where you can improve.
6. Find ways to support critical departments
Support your highest producers in key areas. This can look like providing them with an assistant so they can focus on their jobs, or it could look like ensuring key departments have all of the equipment they need. If you aren’t sure what supporting these areas looks like for your business, survey your employees and find out what they need to do their jobs more effectively.
7. Do a deep dive into your customers
Another group of people to survey are your customers. As you focus on scalability, you can lose sight of those customers who have stuck with you through thick and thin. Take a step back and talk to your customers – new and long-term. What do they need from you? What gets them fired up? What do they like about your product or service? How can your business improve and serve them better?
Gathering this information will help you find places that need support now, before you scale up.
8. Look at your funding
Finances are often a challenge faced by businesses hoping to scale. The question you need to ask yourself and your accounting team before tackling new growth areas is, “Will this growth pay for itself?” Make sure your growth plan is on firm financial footing now and into the future.
9. Review past successes
When a business owner hopes to scale their business, finding the right path forward can be challenging. One way to discover what will work in the future is to look at the past. What has made former campaigns or launches successful? How can you replicate that success with a new product or new branch?
Breaking down past success will help you map a path forward.
10. Chart metrics to ensure you are on track
Growth can be measured, and so can the dips and challenges encountered along the way. Chart your metrics as you scale to:
- Locate trouble areas before they blow up in your face.
- Ensure you are on track and meeting goals.
Keeping track of metrics will enable you to understand how your business has grown. The metrics may surprise you. You could discover that a product you had previously considered discontinuing is now flying off the shelves. Indeed, seeing such surprising shifts allows you to dig into the data, survey clients, and find out why a product is successful where others are not.
Are you on the cusp of scaling your business? Contact Business Success Consulting Group for systems and strategic implementation consulting.
