101: Scaling up
Scaling a business means to set the stage for your company’s growth. Scaling is a framework that requires planning, funds, partnerships, and capacity. Growth without scaling can result in miscommunication, too little manufacturing, scarce staff and ultimately, unhappy customers. Here are ways to scale, or build room to grow.
Find effective technology. It should decrease your team’s workload, says Ryan Robinson at Forbes, who calls technology a growth driver. He uses examples such as customer relationship management tools, social media platforms, product information feeds, and supply chain management software. He uses the company Omniture as an example. “Omniture was able to grow its revenue so much faster than its expenses that they eventually sold for $1.8 billion to Adobe in 2009 – it’s partly because they embraced technology to scale their business without subjecting senior management to overworking themselves,” he says.
Bulk up your staff. This can mean hiring or outsourcing, according to SCORE, but even with technology, is something still necessary. Recruiting, hiring, benefits, and payroll services all speed up and streamline the process. The nonprofit suggests looking at industry benchmarks to calculate how many customer-service representatives should be hired based on the number of customers. Industry standards can be guidelines for delivery of product or services in manufacturing, inventory and delivery of products. SCORE reminds business owners management needs to grow, too. Though growth is a positive, “You won’t be able to oversee everything,” says SCORE.org.
Know when to scale – at launch. Businessbusinessbusiness.com’s Mihir Thaker says if you are scaling your business when large amounts of growth are underway, you have waited too long. “Wouldn’t it best if your business was designed to scale? So that when you start to succeed all the processes and procedures are in place to make you succeed?” he asks.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments