As a business owner or CEO, you’re constantly thinking about how you will grow your company. If your business is no longer starting out and ready to advance in the market, it’s time to get serious about scaling strategies.
Scaling your business refers to maintaining a forward growth trajectory. A key part of this is increasing revenue without additional cost input, but there are many beneficial results of successful business scaling. Think greater customer numbers, new opportunities, expanded physical or digital retail space, and better brand reputation.
It’s easy for founders to feel discouraged when these results aren’t immediate or constantly maintained. Remember that what’s important is staying steadily fixed on a growth path. There will always be ups and downs, but long-term success will come when you keep the forward momentum.
Here are ten ways to bring this growth to your company!
1. Understand the Basics
To grow your company, you need to fully understand where it is now and where you want it to go. Businesses that don’t have a solid knowledge of their specifics won’t be able to take off.
Christian Kjaer, CEO of ElleVet Sciences speaks to some of the questions you can ask: “In the process of trying to scale a business, CEOs and CFOs need to have firm answers to questions like: what is the company’s business model? What are its objectives, its growth plan, its mission? Where is the funding coming from? What is the company’s brand?”
When you understand your basics you can communicate these details to your team, including where you want to be and in what time frame.
2. Ensure You’ve Built a Solid Team
When preparing to take your business to new heights, having the right people on board is imperative. You want to foster an environment where everyone is willing to give their best efforts, so hiring the right people for the journey makes a big difference in whether your company grows successfully.
“It takes a village to have a truly prosperous company, which is why CEOs need to gather a body of employees who are aligned with their brand’s mission and goals,” shares Natalia Morozova, Partner at Cohen, Tucker & Ades PC, Immigration Law Firm. “Every business ideally wants their team to grow with them as they work to scale status, revenue, and sales.”
Not only does your business need subordinating workers committed to the shared objectives, but it also needs strong leaders to take charge and direct each step of the process.
3. Reach a Stage of Consumer Based Marketing
Speaking of user-generated content (UGC) and influencer marketing, consumer-based marketing is an effective strategy to incorporate into your growth plan. You should aim to reach new heights through consumer marketing because it will lessen your team’s social media marketing load and, effectively, your costs.
“When a company utilizes consumer marketing, their team no longer has to do all the marketing themselves because consumers are doing part of it for them,” says Miles Beckett, Co-Founder and CEO of Flossy. “Buyers are spreading information about your brand through product reviews, product self-advertising, and word-of-mouth communication with others.”
Not only does reaching a growth stage of consumer-based marketing guarantee less on your content creation team, but studies have also found that people trust user-generated content more than brand-created content. Ultimately, a healthy mix of both is ideal.
4. Collaborate With Another Brand
In the same vein of collaborative marketing efforts, you can gain momentum and scale your business by partnering with another brand for a shared project. If you can collaborate with a company with the same audience that’s on a similar growth trajectory, a product partnership can really benefit both parties, as Susan Kim Shaffer, President and Co-Founder of Pneuma Nitric Oxide points out:
“A collaboration should be a mutually-beneficial partnership, but if the other brand is in a period of further-along growth, or if they have greater numbers of sales, the less developed brand can especially benefit from their leverage. Both of your brand’s reach will grow through the collaboration.”
Not only this, but both companies will create lasting industry connections, which could alter the course of their future business models.
5. Don’t Fear Failure
Businesses need to take risks during the process of scaling because, otherwise, they’re trapped in stagnancy, which can’t foster growth. You can’t be afraid of failure in the process of scaling your company — or at least not too afraid to do it despite your fears.
“Those who fear failure are much less likely to take risks. But the truth is that it takes a good amount of ‘failure’ to reach success because how can it really be defined so narrowly? A failure might set someone back a bit or steer them in an alternate direction, but at the end of the day, this redirection and regrouping will be an essential part of the puzzle that leads to growth,” explains Lyudmyla Dobrynina, Head of Marketing North America at Optimeal.
You shouldn’t be afraid to take risks now because you might never have the necessary information to feel ready. Building and growing a business is trial and error. Maybe you don’t have the full budget or all the answers, but it’s not too early to start.
6. Consider Outsourcing
When in the process of gaining momentum and scaling your business, outsourcing may be the right option for you. It can save money because it offers more flexibility in contracts. For instance, you can outsource someone for the length of time you need the assistance, which isn’t adding another full-time employee.
“Outsourcing is a wise move because it allows brands to hire the person with the right skillset, no matter where in the world they are,” says Patricio Paucar, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Your Navi. “And they can be brought on for project-based or as-needed work.”
Aim to strike the right balance for your company in regard to your in-house and outsourced employees so that nothing slips through the cracks.
7. Be Consistently Active Online
Your company should include online and social media activity in its growth strategy. A huge part of scaling your business involves connecting with your audience. Brands with a strong social media presence generally have increased brand exposure with their target demographics, especially if they’re between 18 and 29 — the biggest social media user group.
“Much of a brand’s growth comes from the consumers: how familiar they are with it, how relevant it is to them, how much they’re interacting with it and spreading word of mouth, and of course, how much they’re buying it. Businesses need to meet their audience where they are: on social media channels,” explains Max Schwartzapfel, CMO of Fighting For You.
Through greater brand awareness and proven marketing techniques like sharing user generated content and working with influencers, businesses can experience boosted sales, a sign of active scaling.
8. Aim for Growth Every Day
For your business to grow, you need to aim for consistent growth, but try thinking about it in small, manageable bites. If you work to grow every single day, even in little increments, you are steadily progressing toward your goals.
“Rule number one of a growth mindset: don’t stop and don’t be afraid to try. This is a great general rule for life, too, in one’s own personal development. When one develops a mentality of growth, it will span all aspects of their life, and their business will benefit at the same time they themself do,” says Ubaldo Perez, CEO of Hush Anesthetics.
You’ll know your business has hit a new stage of growth because processes that were taxing before will now feel natural. A key benefit of reaching a new growth level is how much less energy it takes to complete the same steps that were grueling before.
9. Have a Solid Customer Service Setup
A thriving company is one that effectively reaches its customers. Throughout all the comments, concerns, and questions your consumers have, your customer service should be reputable for its strong assistance.
Sara Aalshamsi, Founder and CEO of Big Heart Toys adds: “More than being about keeping current customers satisfied, businesses should think about customer service as the process of potentially gaining new customers. Consumers will often engage with a brand before making a purchase, which they may never make if they aren’t impressed.”
Incorporating a mix of chatbots and human customer service representatives can help your company speed up wait times and reach more people.
10. Delegate Smaller Tasks
You are the leader of your business, so it’s your job to focus on the bigger-picture ideas. When working towards greater momentum and growth, you need to be at the helm, making executive decisions for the good of the company.
“In a successful company, some people are prioritizing the minutiae that keep operations flowing, while CEOs and founders should be primarily focused on the broader vision and taking active steps towards it,” explains Den Montero, Marketing Director of Moeflavor.
Although it can be tempting to micro-manage or step in to handle the smaller tasks, remember that your role as a leader is key to your company’s success at scaling.
Scale Your Business and Never Look Back
When you know it’s time to scale your business by pushing for steady growth, it can be daunting, but the time is right to advance. The above tips will help your business gain momentum and grow into the next development phase.
With a forward-thinking mindset and willingness to look at the data and make changes, you’ll experience scaled revenue and increased customer numbers in no time!
