This overlooked factor dictates the overall success of ANY growth initiative BEFORE it actually happens in your company!
SCALE.
As a business owner, you talk about it all the time. You imagine scale to be the “J” shaped curve. You may even idealize it (I get it, it’s sexy).
Yet why is it that some companies struggle to enter a new stage of growth while others scale fluidly and consistently?
I’ve worked in growth driven teams, from being a part of a leadership team during an acquisition, to coaching successful entrepreneurs, to actively leading and managing growth initiatives for six-figure and multi-million dollar companies.
I’ve seen what works, what makes companies tick and consequently, what some companies overlook when going for scale.
This overlooked factor is critical, and how well you address it will dictate the overall success of any growth initiative BEFORE it actually happens!
What is the factor that determines your success?
In one word: environment.
What a broad word, right?
Well, I had to put this way so you can think about scale holistically instead of tactically.
So let’s paint the full picture.
Most business owners were the first and sole employee of their company. And with time and constant hustle, they grew.
The formula was simple:
(Have a great product or service + a solid customer acquisition mechanism) x marketing fuel = growth.
This formula is maintainable until you reach a certain breaking point.
This breaking point reveals how well the company addressed the scale factor.
If the company addressed the scale factor correctly, they would continue to hum along a build/grow pattern.
If the company did not address this scale factor correctly, then things start to break.
Here’s how that looks like:
Dropoff, items falling through the cracks, client deliverables not being met, churn rate increases, spending increases, high working hours, founders not having the lifestyle they imagined, team morale going down, increase turnover rate, frustration, stagnating growth…
So how does environment really play a vital role when scaling your company?
Well, there are three environments at any given time in a company:
1.Physical environment – which includes but is not limited to a physical office, team dynamics, company culture, employee experience, etc.
- You’ll notice the physical also play a vital role with the:
2. Mental environment for yourself and your team. This includes how apt you and your team are to handle growth stress or make key decisions when scaling.
3.Lastly, there’s the actual company’s internal environment. And this is what gets overlooked. This is the way your company actually runs and delivers value to the marketplace. And this dictates your ability to continue to scale…
Put in another way:
Your ability to scale is in direct proportion to how well your operations can sustain it.
Nope, it’s not your marketing. Marketing helps gets you to communicate value and get you, customers. Marketing must always be happening to drive growth into your company… but what good is your marketing if you flood the system with leads that you can’t keep up with… or what benefit do you get from adding dozens of new clients that your team can’t fulfill? Customers will be unhappy, client’s needs won’t be met, your team will be stressed out and you may become the disgruntled employee at your own company…
Nope, it’s not your product. Having a great product or service is a given. It’s essential to provide value to the marketplace and make your customers happy. But great products and ideas don’t always win…
Well oiled & streamlined operations take your marketing and product to scale.
So, HOW is it done?
Here is how successful companies scale:
By focusing on building the proper workflows in your business AS you grow, you allow yourself to truly build a solid foundation in your business where you can expand upon your successes.
It’s not your sexy “J” shaped curve.
There is heavy lifting involved.
But, it IS doable.
And this IS a choice for your company.
You can either choose to scale and run on a perpetual hamster wheel of putting out fires, chasing down tasks, have anxiety constantly checking in on client fulfillment, wondering why churn and turnover rates are high and being in a place where you can’t bring on more customers because you simply have “no time”.
Or
You can scale using the build/grow pattern outlined above – and you can do it by building the essential workflows your business needs for scale so you can reach new levels of success, clarity & impact.