As an entrepreneur, you have to stay hungry. For many, the moment you see success, the fear of losing it can be paralyzing. You might feel like you’re not ready to scale your business and fear that any misstep will lead to failure. But, if you can take the risk and overcome that fear, there are strategies and things you can do to help you get there. Here are seven ways you can help scale your business.
Get a Process Down
When you first start out, what got you here is likely the way that you’ll have to continue doing it moving forward. However, with bigger orders comes more risk if something goes amiss. It’s crucial to get a process down or hire someone who can implement one to reduce financial risk. Appoint someone who is good at what they do to be an expert in that area of your business and empower them to spread their wings and take control of it.
Go for business financing
As a small business owner, it can be challenging to find the right financing solutions for your business. Not only do you need a solution that will let you grow; you also need a company that will treat you fairly and with respect throughout the application and approval process. Now, there is a better way. Calculator.me, for example, has an online calculator which can help you determine how much funding you need to get your business off the ground, expand it, or start it in the first place. Simply key in your current numbers and let the calculator work its magic. Within moments, you’ll have access to the information you need to do what every small business owner needs: grow your company.
Optimize your product
When you’re first looking at a product, it’s easy to focus on the quality of the product itself. However, if you want to scale your business, then you need to focus on optimizing the product first. This means finding a product that’s already selling well on other platforms, then doing your best to replicate that success on your own site. You should also be keeping an eye out for trends in your own industry. If something is trending on other sites in your niche, make sure that this is something that you can replicate and adapt for sale on your site.
Be ready to adapt.
We’re seeing a major trend in terms of how Makers see their role and their company. Makers are moving from focusing on product development to focus on the business-side of their business. There’s a general shift from doing things like lead generation to actually implementing sales strategies.
The key is to always stay tuned into what’s happening with your customers.
You have to be ready and willing to change for the better. You need to be flexible and that requires you to keep an open mind to new ideas, even if they might initially seem off, you might be surprised with how effective they could be for your company.
Seek inspiration from those who have done it before!
Scaling a company is hard work and there are plenty of pitfalls that you can easily stumble into if you’re not prepared. Scaling your business can be a lonely and scary endeavor. It’s hard to know where to go for inspiration and there are few, if any, existing examples you can look to for guidance. As a business owner, you likely have some great ideas of your own but may be hesitant to risk moving forward with them for fear of failure.
Be Exceptional at 1 Thing
Your business is everything you do, from creating and shipping your product to the customer service team who helps your customers if there are any issues with their orders. You want to excel at all of these things. If you’re exceptional at one thing—be it delivering the fastest customer service in the industry or creating the most efficient packaging for your products—you can then use that as a point of differentiation when you grow your business.
Plan to fail
Even the best-laid plans can fall apart, and you have to be prepared for anything from an unexpected traffic surge to competitors snatching your new customers away.Success comes with a price, and as you grow, you have more to lose. If everything goes according to plan, you can achieve it quickly, but when something goes wrong, you need to be prepared.
To ensure your success, you need a detailed plan that includes contingencies. You’ll want to understand how your business is going to scale as your traffic grows. How are you going to deal with spikes in traffic? Do you have the processes and technology in place to keep things running smoothly? When things go wrong, how will you respond?
Companies like Amazon and WellPCB are scaling up their operations to handle massive amounts of traffic and if you’re planning to follow suit, it’s not going to happen by chance.
Implement marketing automation.
There are many options including Hubspot, Infusionsoft, and ActiveCampaign, and all will help automate some of your marketing processes. Review and set up your email frequency. Plan time for inventory control. Consider hiring a virtual assistant or contractor. Start building in some buffer time into your schedule for big projects on the horizon. Break down your goals into actionable, realistic steps and review them weekly. Look for ways you can automate your business so you have more free time to enjoy life outside of work.
