By Dan Radak
No matter what industry you are in, what kind of a business model you follow or what your personal beliefs are – the goal of every company is the same; growth. Growth brings progress and progress brings increased revenue.
This may sound cynical, but this is business. Business is about growing and making more revenue.
In order to grow, you will need to scale up your small business from time to time. Doing this the right way is far more complicated and sensitive than it might sound.
HR is Crucial
Often times, HR is considered to be the butt of jokes, an entertaining distraction, at best. In reality, however, HR has never been more important with the diminishing workforce loyalty and the need for trained and experienced professionals.
Without hiring the right people, it will be all but impossible for your company to grow. Simply filling the holes with people who are good enough is not the answer. You need employees who will know their job and who will help you push your company forward.
It is more likely than not that you will have to do some employer branding and it is just as important to keep your employees happy and engaged.
Money. Money. Money.
One of the biggest differences that business owners learn about when they start to scale up their company is that everything they knew about finances no longer applies. Okay, perhaps not everything, but the majority, for sure.
For one, any upscaling will require quite a financial injection and you have to know exactly where to get it and how not to hurt for decades to come because of a wrong choice. Make sure to weigh every single financing option that you can find out there. Compare and contrast them until your eyes bleed. If you are not that good with numbers, hire an accountant and ask them to help you with this issue.
It goes well beyond upscale financing when we are talking money. For instance, you will find out that you are hemorrhaging money somewhere where you hadn’t done before. You will need to find the ways to become more efficient and less wasteful. For instance, you will have to reduce client acquisition costs and employee turnover.
Every expense that you used to worry about will become a much bigger issue and you will have to spend quite a bit of time reigning it all in.
Don’t Forget the Big Picture
When companies scale up, they often discover that the day-to-day operation becomes so much more intense that they often find themselves three months later, just trying to keep their head above the water. And a company easily gets used to this. It starts surviving.
This is not the point. If this was the point, you could have done it before you scaled up. You scaled up because it is a natural step forward. If you forget to take these steps, you are standing in one place.
Because of this, you as a business owner need to keep the big picture in your mind. There is an ambitious goal that you have been striving for since before you started your company. Do not lose view of this goal. Even if you spend 10 hours every day trying to keep the newly enhanced machine running, you still need to find some time to pursue these bigger goals.
A great managerial staff will be of humongous help here, which is another reason why you will want to hire and retain the best talent around.
There are innumerable more things that you will need to keep in mind when scaling up, but these are the Three Really Big Ones – people, money and philosophy. Everything else comes naturally.
