How to scale your small business
There comes a time in every small business owner’s mind, when the need to grow becomes the highest priority. Whether it’s due to business goals or the necessity to meet growing consumer demand, scaling your business is an important step to growing your start-up into an SME (small to medium enterprise). So let’s talk about how to scale your small business.
What is ‘scaling’ when it comes to small business?
Scaling is the process of increasing revenue, while simultaneously increasing efficiency. Unlike business growth, scaling can allow the business to become more profitable, and faster; as it doesn’t solely mean more sales or more workload.
How to scale your small business
We’ve put together some steps on how to scale your small business, learning from the success of profitable companies, and the challenges they’ve faced along the way.
Planning
The key to business success in any form is planning. Within this area comes due diligence, research and forecasting, and understanding what is happening in your industry and what your competitors are succeeding and failing at. It’s important to put together a plan that outlines your business goals, and a detailed roadmap on how to get there. It’s important to note that this plan will need constant revision along the way. But it’s always better to follow a revised plan than to have no plan at all.
Mindset
Your mindset as a small business owner is everything. Running a business comes with a variety of challenges. Clients come and go, staff turnover and spot fires arise out of nowhere on your busiest days. But if you truly believe in the business you’ve created and become your biggest cheerleader, roll with the punches and come up fighting – then you’ve got the drive and the mindset for success.
Team
The right people can achieve anything. Finding the perfect fit for your business is one of the most important aspects to consider when looking to scale. For many successful businesses, this meant finding the right fit culturally, as opposed to skill set. If your team members have the best interests of the business in mind and work efficiently while bringing a positive, motivated mindset to the table – then there is a strong likelihood that they will upskill where necessary to ensure they perform to a high standard. It’s important to remember that you cannot grow a small business into a larger business all by yourself- you need skilled staff to come on the journey with you.
Procedures
As your business scales, things may happen quickly. And when this momentum occurs, it’s important to be prepared for growth. Fine-tune your business operations and procedures so that new team members can assimilate into the business with ease. A good first impression for new staff members can be the difference between a motivated employee and an unmotivated one. This will also allow your business to continue running efficiently while scaling. Keeping your software up-to-date at all times is crucial to scaling success.
Delegation
You may have started as a ‘one-man band’, but to scale your business successfully, you’re going to have to let go. Trusting your team and knowing when to delegate are key when scaling your small business. Stepping away from certain tasks will allow you to see the business from a strategic perspective and allow you to plan for the future accordingly. As a manager, you will need to continue to “test check” to ensure that the staff are up to their tasks.
Calculated Risk
We recently watched a fantastic TED Talk by Tina Seelig, a professor at Stanford University. She spoke about ‘luck’ and touched on the benefits of taking risks. By taking calculated risks, you’re putting yourself in new terrain – and this may result in a butterfly effect of positive influence, especially when it comes to your business. This comes to play when looking to scale your small business. Because to get where you want to go, you must do things you’ve never done before; and this may mean stepping outside your comfort zone.
Contact the team at Core Business Brokers
Core Business Brokers are your go-to team for all things business sales in Sydney. With over 85 years of collective experience, we know business. Contact Roy at [email protected] or Rad, at [email protected] or contact the team today to discuss your business journey with the best, (02) 9413 2977.
