How to scale your startup business
It is not easy for startups to become corporate giants. It takes a lot of effort to transform your company into a competitive enterprise. That’s why, if you’re a founder and you’re thinking about moving on to the next chapter, we have all the answers to the question of how to scale a startup.
Most startup guides focus on the initial stage of building a company. While getting investors to pay attention to you and raise funds is difficult, there are many pitfalls on the road to expanding your business. The moment you decide you want your little playground to become something bigger is the moment you enter the boss level in the game.
So, if you are already familiar with the challenges of developing products for startups or have read how hugely successful applications are born , let’s move on to the topic of expanding your company.
Growth versus scaling
Just to make sure we’re on the same page.
Growth is not the same as scaling. As your business grows, your company’s revenue and expenses grow at about the same rate. For example, when you hire new staff to serve more customers, you spend extra money hiring more people, but you also get more revenue from serving additional customers.
As you scale up your startup, you want to achieve exponential growth in revenue without spending the equivalent. You strive to get the maximum profit while investing little or no resources. And yes it is possible!
How to scale your startup
Prepare your company to become a bigger player in the market.
Explore the essence of your company
Don’t increase too fast! First, you must dive into your business and define its essence. Because without a solid foundation, you can forget about surviving the scaling phase. What makes your company work? What is your product, your target audience, and what are the sales paths?
Here’s a helpful checklist to help you determine if you know your company well.
- Do you have an MVP? Have you confirmed your product idea?
- What is your target client?
- What Marketing Channels Are Generating The Best Leads?
- Do you have enough savings and resources to survive the scaling phase?
When you are absolutely confident that you know the identity of your company, you are ready to scale it.
Is your business scalable?
Sometimes it’s not worth trying to scale your business. When you are launching a small, successful startup and it gets to the point where the costs of expanding are going to be quite high – think twice. It is better to remain a small but existing business than to invest too many resources and disappear one day.
Automation and outsourcing are your new best friends
Take the time to figure out what processes in your company can be automated and automated as much as possible. Processes such as billing, onboarding, marketing, or lead verification can be optimized through automation. Speaking of work optimization, invest in cloud services! Think about the back end of your product and the ability to port it to Firebase. See what you can get by choosing Firebase as your server solution .
Outsourcing is also possible. If you can’t automate something, just delegate it to an external partner. Here is an article on how to choose the right outsourcing company . Get used to outsourcing things like copywriting, design, or accounting. Sometimes it’s even better to outsource some of your projects to another technology partner. Read about successful startups that outsource their MVPs .
Develop your internal processes
If your company doesn’t have well-defined processes, you won’t be able to move to the scaling phase. Develop an action plan, all procedures and steps that will make your business prosperous. If you can leave your company on fire, confident that it won’t burn without you, it’s because all the key people know the card to the heart of the company.
When your absence does not negatively affect the development of your company, it is a victory!
3 no need to remember
Don’t hire too many people
At this point, you don’t need to grow in terms of people (since you automate and outsource a lot)
Don’t ride a roller coaster with all the funding you’ve collected
Distribute your money wisely.
Don’t expand your core offering
Probably the worst time to start building your entire brand line is to focus on what you already have.
Thinking at scale
There are ways to scale your startup efficiently. However, when you think you are ready, you often fail. It is a mindset that deceives you and your development.
Well, it’s not easy to get out of the optimistic zone when your startup is thriving and is about to enter the scaling phase. Most founders are struggling to get there, and you’re already here! But be careful with optimism. Many successful cases distract the startup founder’s attention from the present. Instead of looking here and now, they think about how great things will be.
So, the last tip: be calm and always be realistic about your situation.