By Aleksandar Radosevic
For newly founded startups, growth is a natural way to progress. But what if a sudden uncontrolled growth happens, and there are no resources available to follow it up?
That means you have a severe problem with scalability.
Scalability is a business strategy focused on capacity and capability.
Before even considering expanding, you need to have in mind — does your startup have a capacity to grow? A startup needs to have a structured business model, developed infrastructure and a reliable team to secure sustainable growth.
Scaling a startup is a complex process that requires enough resources to support and enable the growth of your company.
In the modern startup world, outdated business practices do not apply anymore. A prejudice that bigger is better is a late 1950s business model and includes robust workflow methodology established on growth-minded models.
Today, the structure of a successful business model requires resilience and an ability to withstand a constant change.
Therefore scalability is a strategy toward sustainable growth of every successful startup.
1. Growth vs. Scaling
Let start with the basics — the main difference between these two business strategies.
When we talk about growth – we see a linear distribution of adding new resources to increase revenue. On the other side, scaling is when you increase revenue without inputting additional resources.
Simple as that.
It is clear now why modern entrepreneurs are obsessed with the idea of scalability.
Growth means to spend more to get more – scale means increasing revenue without adding significant resources.
Most of the businesses are going toward the same goal; an international company with hundreds of employees. And it makes sense, but logistics behind that huge machinery is often overwhelming and, in most cases, unsustainable.
Growth without scalability is predetermined to fail. That’s why scalability plays an enormous role in expanding your business.
Especially when you are in the early stage of business development – there must be an equally determined fixation on the scale, not just mere growth.
2. Organization
Once the startup business strategy is clear and transparent – all internal processes from initiation, organization, and execution need to be scaled. It is a critical stage when startup workload must be transformed into a sustainable workflow.
To achieve that, you need to utilize project management software tools that will automate your workflow and team management. Now, when all of your workloads are under one platform, you can have a unique point of view: continuous monitoring and quick access to all files, docs, and tasks as a project overview.
This way, you automatize all processes and smartly distribute resources – having a perspective of your team capabilities to scale your workflow capacity accurately.
3. The LASSO algorithm
Now that your workflow is sustainable for the current amount of output; how will you know if your company can withstand the expansion?
The LASSO algorithm is a scientific method that can predict brand growth potential.
Using a statistical methodology, LASSO compares the vast variables of your startup with many successful and failed brands. It also allows you to benchmark your brand by industry.
LASSO technique includes five different stages of your brand growth as a result of a unique statistical algorithm.
This is a way that you can easily estimate your startup growth potential and have a piece of additional information on risk estimation for your business development.
4. Establish Company Culture
How does company culture have any connection with startup growth and scalability?
In most cases, company culture came naturally, and it’s not at the top of the priorities of entrepreneurs – and that can be fatal for a young startup.
One of the main goals is to create a healthy company culture that will present your core values – not what you sell but of what you believe in.
But when it comes to growth, and there is not a consistent company culture, some of the values can get lost or transformed as a result of the fast-evolving pace. Later it can affect scaling because it lacks shared values and a clear vision of a primary goal.
Company culture sharpens your startup core strengths and needs to be nurtured. If not, you will be overwhelmed by the ad hoc series of processes and decisions that will lead to uncontrolled growth.
Have in mind that confusion and inconsistency is the archnemesis of a sustainable workflow.
5. Employee Onboarding
If you think about it, employee onboarding starts before you even hire new team members.
It started with clear and concise company culture.
If you know what you are looking for – you will easily find it.
When it comes to growing, it is hard to follow up with all new employees – so you need a standardized system that will fulfill the scalability circle.
Employee onboarding needs to have stages that will create a transparent workflow in the future and play a huge role in the scalability of your startup.
First stage: Make sure that new employees are confident about doing their job.
Second stage: Have a specific understanding of expectations and role in the team.
Third stage: Social integration into the team and community
Fourth stage: Understanding of company culture, core values, and how to function in that system.
After onboarding through these stages, you will have an overview of employees fit in your startup community. This information is crucial because you can esteem all the abilities and limitations of your team members before you jump into the growth.
It is almost automated scalability – through company culture and employee onboarding.
Grow. Scale. Succeed.
To sustain constant growth, you need an incredible amount of resources.
In general opinion, startup growth is an indicator of success and increased revenue. But it also refers to other aspects such as: the industry you are involved in, and specific niche, company culture, number of employees, and vast other variables that affect growth and at the end of the day – revenue.
To create sustainable growth and avoid unstable expansion, you need to scale every aspect of the workflow. Keep in mind that high financial growth can be sustainable only by significant losses.
On the other hand, scalability shows that you can increase revenue and be able to keep costs at a minimum. As growth is simply achievable – scalability is an incredibly complex process, and there are no shortcuts toward a perfectly scaled workflow. Therefore, to sustain business growth – scalability is the only way toward a successful startup.
What are your main concerns about growth vs. scale as the main strategies of your startup? Please, leave a comment!