Every business owner wants to be on a route of direct upward progression. Losing more sales and customers than you gain is obviously tragic. Stopping in your tracks can be just as dangerous. Entropy is an ever-pulling force in the world of business. Fail to work against it and it will drag you into its grasp. Slowly but surely. Scaling is what you have to look forward to. Growing the business to new heights. But what needs to be in place before you can scale? Here are a few of the crucial ingredients.
The brand
Is your business big enough to take the next step? It might not have a big enough team or office or client list. But what’s the one ingredient that really makes or breaks the transition? The position of the brand. Your business must be able to capitalize on an already strong brand. If you’re not already getting referrals, you must work on your word-of-mouth. If your site isn’t retaining visitors, you need a redesign. You can’t take aspects of the brand that aren’t working now and hope that will change. They’re not going to do any better on a bigger scale. Make sure the brand fits and even surpasses the quality of your work. Image is everything when you’re trying to scale and reach for higher levels of success.
The structure
Of course, the business has to be able to keep functional moving from one height to the next. Can you keep doing things the way you’re doing with 200% more customers than you have now? Probably not. So, what needs to change? Do you need office moving companies to help you up-size into a bigger work environment? Do you need more employees? If so, which teams must scale and which work better at the size they are now? Do all these requirements fit your budget? If not, where are you going to get the extra funding? It’s a lot of questions. You need to ask yourself even more. Otherwise, your structure is going to be too thin to support the weight of business you want to build.
The market
That structure isn’t secure once you have it all successfully built, either. Fixing it in place is about taking advantage of your growth. To do that, you need to have the market. First, figure out if there’s enough to capitalize on. If you’re trying to expand your current market share, how much more can you reasonably expect to get? If you’re targeting a new market, how much evidence do you have that there are enough people in it? Then you must figure out how you’re going to increase your sales. The branding mentioned above is a start. But you need to move your feet, as well. In business 2 business, you need to network with potential clients as hungrily as you did when you first started. In business 2 consumer, you need to find the distributors and partners who will help you capture that bigger market chunk.
Give your business the greatest chance for success. Don’t be one of the many businesses that fail because they fail to scale. Always keep your eyes on the future and always look for the next opportunity to grow. The only other option is down.
