Scaling your business is about effectively planning and preparing for growth, so as your operation gets bigger, your costs and workload don’t increase to unsustainable levels. To properly scale your business, you should be increasing revenue at a rapid rate, while increasing costs at a much slower rate.
Growth is only sustainable if you have the systems and resources in place to support expansion. In other words, bigger is only better if your operations are scalable. Here are four strategies to consider to ensure your company is properly scaled for sustainable growth.
- Automate and Standardize Processes
When you’re in the startup phase, you’ll likely find yourself handling many of the small, day-to-day tasks of running your business such as invoicing, payroll, and inventory. But if you’re looking to scale, neither you nor your team leads can afford to be bogged down with such mundane work.
In order to scale for growth, invest in business software systems that fully automate these tasks, and implement standardized and repeatable processes for those tasks that can’t be totally automated. This may also require training and delegating these tasks to your existing team and/or hiring new support staff.
- Protect Your Foundation
One of the most dangerous aspects of rapid growth are the increased liabilities that come with expanding your operation. Even if you’ve developed streamlined processes and systems for delivering your core product or service, your business is still at risk if you don’t have solid legal, insurance, financial, and tax (LIFT) systems in place, which form the foundation of your operation.
In fact, without effective LIFT systems, your company is just one accident, audit, or lawsuit away from ruin. You must work with an attorney that can assist you in establishing an unshakeable LIFT foundation, so your business is protected from all of growth’s potential pitfalls.
- Identify What Sets You apart from Competitors
Unless you clearly understand what drives customers to engage with your business over your competitors, you risk taking the wrong path for growth. To this end, you must first identify your company’s core strengths, and then use this knowledge to develop strategies aimed at scaling for focused growth.
And don’t just try to guess what customers find appealing about your business—base your decisions on hard data. From website analytics and survey responses to analyzing customer movement through your sales funnel, there are numerous data sources from which you can identify both your strengths and weaknesses and scale accordingly.
- Build Strategic Partnerships
When it comes to increased growth, you can’t just focus on what goes on inside your organization. You also need to look outside your business to find partners who can support your expanding operation. If you’re looking to dramatically increase your sales and customer base, you must have vendors who can handle this increased volume.
Form strategic alliances with multiple vendors, such as suppliers, service providers, and sales channel partners, who can meet your growing needs. And when creating these alliances, make sure you have airtight agreements in place that properly share the risk.
Scale for Sustainable Success
Achieving sustainable success is not about simply growing your business, but in scaling your operation, so you can welcome growth without unnecessary expense and wasted effort. However, effective scalability often requires skills and systems you may not fully anticipate.
Dahl Law Group
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