4 Stages of Scaling a Business

The reasons why people decide to start their businesses vary greatly. Some have set out to change the world; others are looking for individual freedom or want to get rich.

Thus, not all entrepreneurs want their business to grow. That’s perfectly fine if their dreams don’t stretch beyond supporting a particular lifestyle – why hustling to achieve something that may not lead to greater happiness?

The more ambitious business owners who are concerned with scaling their business often struggle to achieve their goals. The reasons are a lack of strategy, planning, and concrete objectives.

Step 1: Building a diversified team

It takes a founder to start a business, but it takes a team to scale it. The larger a business grows, the higher the workload and the more a business owner needs to be able to delegate. Thus, companies with growth ambitions need to build a team.

However, it’s not only the workload that increases; it’s also the complexity of the tasks. Therefore, businesses should build a broad management skillset. While a freelancer might easily do his accounting and taxes by himself, an SME may have more complex accounting needs and therefore needs a qualified accountant.




Step 2: Establishing long-term partnerships

What’s been said about teams also applies to external partnerships. Having a trusted network of service providers, distribution partners, loyal clients, and reliable suppliers is paramount when scaling the business.

Therefore, building strong relationships should be a significant focus when growing a business. These can be formal alliances like partnerships or joint ventures, but what is even more essential is the human element and the trust between the different parties involved. Once you’ve built up a fruitful relationship, you can benefit from it for the years ahead.

Step 3: Incorporating standardized processes

Establishing standardized processes is a struggle, especially for small businesses. While at the start, the founder is the centrepiece of the organization and probably does much of the work himself, a growing business is becoming more and more decentralized. The challenge is to ensure that individuals don’t work in silos but instead collaborate across the entire company.

Thus, a startup that is scaling needs processes that enable collaboration, control, reporting, planning, goal setting, and proper delegation. Modern IT tools can provide solutions.

Step 4: Formulating a value proposition and market penetration strategy

The more a company grows, the more it is likely to ruffle feathers with competitors. Businesses need to articulate their competitive position and identify their core competencies. That’s the basis for an effective market penetration strategy.

With a diversified team, reliable partners, efficient processes, and precise market positioning, business owners will find it much easier to scale their business. Just like a tree that needs regular and planned caretaking, companies also need a growth strategy.