The Small Business Scaling Guide: A Blueprint for Growth

Once the business is up and running, most owners will have thoughts of scaling it. While scaling sounds easy, the process is not. It is long-drawn and needs meticulous planning and research, this is partly why some small businesses never scale. Before starting off with the whole process, you will first have to ascertain a few things. Is your business ready to scale? Why do you need to scale? Once you have the proper answers to these two questions let’s move on to the next part. The guide to scaling your business.

Research and Planning

Identify Existing Issues

Do an in-depth analysis of the current state of your business, and identify all the bottlenecks, pain points, and other inconveniences. Make sure to use this data to plan your scaling operation, this way these issues can be avoided from reappearing after you have scaled your business, increasing the overall efficiency.

Research the Market

Who is your target audience? Who are you scaling for? Who will you be competing with? This crucial groundwork can send you flying ahead of your competition. Know who you are selling to, and how you can serve them best. Your scaling operation should accommodate their needs. Then look at your competitors, what can you do differently from them to lure their users? Identify where they are behind and use that to your advantage.

Another important part of market research is customer feedback. Listen to your customers, it is as simple as that. Because at the end of the day, your product or service is for your customers.

Plan Finances

Make a list of available assets and financial resources. Make detailed plans on how you will raise the capital needed for scaling your business, and how you will use the raised capital. Make thorough estimates of how much running the scaled business will cost you, and take measures to have the finances ready to fund the scaled business for at least a few months just in case things go as planned.

A Way Forward

Envision what you want your business to be, and draw up a detailed step-by-step plan that will allow you to achieve your vision for the business. This should include everything, including the financial and logistical plans, structure and hierarchy, marketing strategy, and products and services offered.

Sales Strategy

If you are scaling your business you would for certain have considered sales. Assuming you will sell more, you should have the sales structure in place to handle that.

Marketing

To sell more, you will need to acquire more customers, and it goes without saying what to do in order to acquire more customers- Marketing. Up your marketing game, invest in social media and other proven platforms. Prioritize customer acquisition and retention by building a strong brand image and forming a good relationship with your customers.

Leads

If your business works on leads, then make plans to optimize lead generation, and effectively track and manage them using capable sales representatives, and necessary software.

Supply Chain

If your business sells products, then scaling up means you will be ramping up production too. This calls for more raw materials and an upgrade in logistics. You will have to take measures to secure your supply chain to meet market demands.

Staffing

Hiring

Hire new talent to accommodate your scaling venture. It is better to systematically plan and hire employees in a staggered manner than to hire everyone all at once, this of course depends on your hiring strategy. Make sure to carefully consider who you hire because hiring the wrong people can waste a significant amount of resources for your business.

Outsourcing

Don’t forget that outsourcing is an option that often helps in a clutch when you are scaling up. But just make sure you know when to hire a gig worker, and when to boost your own workforce. They each come with their own set of positives and negatives.

Upskilling

Encourage your employees to skill up, it is a mutually beneficial process. Employee growth directly translates to your business’ growth. Analyze your employees’ strengths and weaknesses and get them to specialize in a field they are strong in. Your ideal workforce should be a combination of specialized and jack-of-all-trades employees, with the former in a greater ratio.

Technology

A very important aspect of the upscaling process is Technology, it is often what sets the top players apart from their competitors. If you are still using traditional systems for your business, then Digitization is something that can make a huge impact on your business.

Upgrade

Consider overhauling all existing systems and performing upgrades to keep up with the upscaling needs. While upgrading make sure you invest in scalable systems, this will aid in future expansions.

Automate

Consider automation wherever it is required. It can help you save a lot of your resources and is a worthwhile long-term investment. Carefully research the automation tools or software you plan to invest in because one wrong move here can have drastic consequences later.

Other Strategies

Profits

With all the foundations of your scaling operations set, it’s time to plan on what to do with your profits. Your priority should be on reinvestment in the form of infrastructure upgrades, talent acquisition, marketing, and skill development.

Plan B

Have a backup plan ready in case things don’t go as intended, you should be able to salvage the situation from any possible state. So plan ahead to minimize risks and losses.

Adapt

Keep your entire business structure flexible, you should be able to adapt to market changes and technological advances, nothing will ever stay the same, so neither should your business. Think on your feet but always make data-backed logical decisions.

Collaboration

Networking is a huge plus in the business world. Actively attend conferences and events where you could chance upon excellent opportunities. Keep your eyes out for any strategic partnerships that can aid your business growth.

Thoroughly research and plan your scaling process, because that is where the majority of the scaling process is at. Mull over the questions asked in the beginning again, before you decide to scale. You should not be scaling if you don’t have those answers.