How to Scale a Small Business

Day-to-day, running a small business feels like it’s about survival and nothing else. Making sure you get enough money in the account for the next payroll, keeping your team happy so they can do a good job, handling unrealistic client demands – it feels like you’re going from one existential threat to another. 

And when you’re entirely focused on survival, it sounds like a joke to talk about scaling your small business into something bigger. 

But what if you could do both at once?

Build a strong team and a playbook to systematize the day-to-day and you’re almost there. 

Here are three places to focus your attention on. 

• Invest in your team – one of the single most important things you can do when building your business is to make sure your team feels heard and supported. According to research by Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct corporate culture is important to a business’ success. Creating a positive work culture focused on employee wellness will undoubtedly get employees to invest their talent in your company. Listen to employee feedback, lead by example, and demand no less from your executive team.

• Balance Agility + Reliability – as your company grows, so do the expectations of investors, employees, and customers. As a startup, you have a lot of freedom to make quick changes that work best for your success, but as a larger business, you now have greater factors to consider before making important choices. Finding a balance of reliability and ability to handle changes can mean the difference between stagnancy and growth. 

• Have Consistent Execution – having cohesive action across teams is a potential solution to establishing consistency. Hiring a head of revenue operations can also help support company strategy across all departments.

Handling company growth appropriately is no doubt a difficult but rewarding task. Establishing a positive work culture, maintaining an ability to handle your operations as you navigate growth, and having consistent execution across departments can make the difference in if you succeed or not.