October 23, 2020
Scaling Your Business for Bigger Success
Remember January 2020? It feels like a lifetime ago. Whether you were just starting out in your business or you wanted this to be the year for scaling your business, I’m betting it didn’t go quite as expected. I know it didn’t for me.
We’ve all been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic personally and professionally, but I try to remind myself every day that this will not last forever.
I’m an optimist for the most part. So when I see news reports about our economy and projections for the future, I don’t let bad news send me into a spiral of doom and gloom. Instead, I look for clues about what I can do differently to scale my business for growth.
While we can hope that 2021 will be a much better year than this one, hope alone won’t get you very far.
If scaling your business to accommodate more work or output (and sales!) is a top priority, you’ve got to take action, get creative, and be willing to do things differently on both a micro and macro level.
Here are some steps you can take.
Ask hard questions
Take an honest look at how you’re doing business.
What’s the best way to prepare to scale your business? Take a deep dive into everything you’re doing.
Run a SWOT analysis. Look for gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities. What you learn may surprise you.
Maybe you’ll get a fresh perspective on the products or services you offer. Maybe you’ll find it’s time to reconsider your entire business model.
It can be especially helpful to pinpoint what facet of your business first failed when COVID hit. The outcome of this pandemic may permanently alter how we function in society moving forward. What can you change in your business to eliminate that type of failure in the future?
Make sure you’re clear about who needs and wants your product or service.
The characteristics and needs of customers and clients are constantly evolving.
Who do you envision as your ideal customer today? What is the specific problem you solve for them? Is your product or service delivery system in alignment with your audience’s needs, wants, and even technical capabilities?
Most important, do you have a repeatable and profitable sales system in place? How can you improve it? Are there ways to make that system more seamless for customers or clients and more efficient on your end?
Create clear and compelling messaging about your product or service.
Because we are hit with so many sales messages all the time, it’s more and more difficult for clients and customers to separate the “noise” from meaningful content.
As part of the effort to scale your business, you should revisit the business messaging you’re putting out there.
Sometimes you need to change up your content to recapture attention. (Major brands do this all the time with new advertising campaigns.)
Whether written or spoken, your message has to grab attention, make the benefits clear, and differentiate you from your competitors. Test, revise, and refine until it precisely conveys what your business is about today and compels your audience to buy.
Think ahead about what your future clients or customers will need or want.
Neither of us have a crystal ball, but we still need to be mindful of what challenges or opportunities may come up in the future. You’ve heard of big companies that didn’t keep up with change and failed as a result – Kodak, Blockbuster Video, Toys R Us. Being in business means you have to continuously innovate.
To scale your business to thrive in the future, keep an eye on trends, watch for developments that can impact the direction of your business, and be prepared to adapt. Too often, I see business owners who are focused only on the short-term. You’ll be ahead of the curve if you keep up with what’s coming up.
Scaling in action
From a practical, step-by-step standpoint, how do you scale your business?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It may mean digitizing products or services (if you’re not doing this already). Or, it could be automating processes, getting on a new social media platform, or utilizing technology to better connect with or serve customers or clients. Scaling could also include outsourcing facets of your work.
It might mean making strategic changes, such as narrowing your niche to serve a more specific audience, expanding what you offer into more diverse areas, or revamping your sales process or price structure. You have to look at the both big picture of your business and the small steps you’re taking to look for ways you can work smarter and more profitably.
The bottom line for scaling your business
Remember that growing your business and scaling your business are not exactly the same. Once you are selling and working regularly with customers or clients and are ready to take on more, you’re in a position to scale.
If your goal is to continually expand your business, scaling is a never-ending process. With every new level of business efficiency, sales, and profitability attained, you position yourself to scale again for more growth.
It’s all part of the challenge (and the fun, too!) of being in business for yourself. There is no blueprint. You’re in the driver’s seat. Of course, that also means your success (or, heaven forbid – failure!) is on your shoulders.
Business ownership is not an easy path, but there are more of us choosing to take it. And why not? As women, we have the skills – great time management and multitasking, switching hats at a moment’s notice, listening, collaborating, planning, and so much more.
Scaling your business isn’t rocket science, but it does require a willingness to take initiative, step out of your comfort zone, pay attention to the results you’re getting, and pivot if you’re not happy with them. It’s a path of discovery.
Putting the right processes, products or services, and people in place to effectively scale takes time. But when you finally get the mix right, you’ll be on your way to bigger and better things in your business.
Do you have questions about how you can succeed in your business and accelerate your journey toward reaching your goals? I invite you to learn more about From Startup to Success coaching packages. Begin with a no-cost 30-minute consultation to discuss where you are with your business and where you want to go.
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