7 Things You Can Do Now to Help You Scale Your Business Later

Don’t wait until you grow to document and organize processes. That’s when you’ll need it most.

Question: What is one thing you can do now to make scaling your business easy later on?

Be Strategic With Any Hacks or Shortcuts

"If your business is built on a bunch of hacks and shortcuts, you will struggle to scale. Aggressive business cycles and markets often dictate that everything can't be bullet proof out of the gate. Knowing that, a hack or two may be necessary to keep you competitive. Use them sparingly and strategically. Be transparent with your team concerning why the hack is needed and how to fix it later."


Build Organizational Structure, Communicate and Automate

"Make sure you have the right team members in the right roles, trained, excited, and ready to go. Ensure organizational processes are defined, understood and followed by all. Automate whatever makes sense in your business to increase efficiencies. Make sure communication is open and flowing for streamlined operations."


Focus on What You Do Best

"The idea is to play to your strengths and make additions to your business that support new features and capabilities without trying to do something you’re not prepared to. By focusing on the clearest value proposition you have to offer, you can dramatically increase your shot at success in the longterm."


Document Your Systems

"When you're starting out, you have more time than you do clients, but that won't always be the case. Take some time early on to document your systems and processes. Make these documents easy to update so you can make changes over time. Having your processes documented will make it so much easier to hire contractors or employees when you have more clients than you do time."


Invest in Scalable Infrastructure

"IT architecture is often one of the biggest roadblocks where scaling is concerned. Building your network and systems to be scalable off the start. For example, invest in virtualized or cloud infrastructure to ensure that when the time comes for business growth, you’ll be fully capable of expanding efficiently."


Organize Your Data

"As your business scales, there's a good chance that the technologies and platforms that you use to communicate with customers will change. As such, it's important to organize all the data relative to how you drive revenue so that it's possible to easily transition into new tools and avoid missing out on dynamic opportunities."


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7 Things You Can Do Now to Help You Scale Your Business Later

Don’t wait until you grow to document and organize processes. That’s when you’ll need it most.

Question: What is one thing you can do now to make scaling your business easy later on?

Be Strategic With Any Hacks or Shortcuts

"If your business is built on a bunch of hacks and shortcuts, you will struggle to scale. Aggressive business cycles and markets often dictate that everything can't be bullet proof out of the gate. Knowing that, a hack or two may be necessary to keep you competitive. Use them sparingly and strategically. Be transparent with your team concerning why the hack is needed and how to fix it later."


Build Organizational Structure, Communicate and Automate

"Make sure you have the right team members in the right roles, trained, excited, and ready to go. Ensure organizational processes are defined, understood and followed by all. Automate whatever makes sense in your business to increase efficiencies. Make sure communication is open and flowing for streamlined operations."


Focus on What You Do Best

"The idea is to play to your strengths and make additions to your business that support new features and capabilities without trying to do something you’re not prepared to. By focusing on the clearest value proposition you have to offer, you can dramatically increase your shot at success in the longterm."


Document Your Systems

"When you're starting out, you have more time than you do clients, but that won't always be the case. Take some time early on to document your systems and processes. Make these documents easy to update so you can make changes over time. Having your processes documented will make it so much easier to hire contractors or employees when you have more clients than you do time."


Invest in Scalable Infrastructure

"IT architecture is often one of the biggest roadblocks where scaling is concerned. Building your network and systems to be scalable off the start. For example, invest in virtualized or cloud infrastructure to ensure that when the time comes for business growth, you’ll be fully capable of expanding efficiently."


Organize Your Data

"As your business scales, there's a good chance that the technologies and platforms that you use to communicate with customers will change. As such, it's important to organize all the data relative to how you drive revenue so that it's possible to easily transition into new tools and avoid missing out on dynamic opportunities."


See Also: 8 Tips for Determining Your Best Pricing Strategy

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