by Kelly Deis of SoundPoint Consulting
First, what does it mean to scale your business, and how does it differ from growing your business?
Consider scaling a business:
“growing sales at an exponential rate while only adding costs incrementally by developing a replicable system for delivering goods and services.”
with simply growing a business:
“increasing sales coupled with increasing costs with little improvement on profit margins.”
The difference is clear. There is nothing easy about scaling your business, particularly for small businesses. It takes intention, strategy and investment.
Often business owners are caught in a Catch-22. They know they can sell more if they hire a Vice-President of Business Development. But, they can’t afford to pay for this this new position until they have increased sales.Yikes.
The larger your business, the easier it is to scale. Larger businesses may have multiple revenue streams, fungible staff and banked capital which can help see them through the ramp-up phase of accelerating growth. Smaller businesses often do not have this luxury. Continue reading
Before the Internet age, small business startups had little opportunity to showcase their products right alongside major national brands. Online marketplaces have leveled the playing field for small businesses, effectively helping them leap geographic boundaries and sell their products in markets that would never have been possible.