At a certain point in every successful business’s life, it’s time to scale up. This includes hiring new personnel, targeting new audiences, and generating more leads. Sometimes, though, the decision to scale needs to wait until the business reaches a point at which it can no longer thrive without scaling.
Here are the telltale signs that you need to scale and the ways to do it, as well as some ways to grow your business without necessarily scaling it up.
More and more leads? Automate your sales and marketing
Whether you’re seeking greater productivity for your team members or trying to accommodate an influx of new leads, automation is the key to growing your business. How much you automate depends somewhat on whether you want to accommodate growth or truly scale. That’s because automation nearly always boosts your lead generation and conversion, which can be unwieldy if you’re not prepared to scale up. If you’re drowning in leads, though, it’s a clear sign that you’re ready to scale.
Either way, automation can help improve the efficiency and consistency of project management, messaging, and sales, which can free up your team members to accommodate the demands of a growing business. If you truly want to scale, however, you can use marketing to pull in more leads and nurture them, which in turn will significantly boost your customer base.
Team strained for resources? Hire freelance help
Typically, scaling up a business involves hiring new full- and part-time employees. The idea is that you have enough work to keep their dockets full. A team that’s consistently overwhelmed is usually one that would benefit from a scaled-up business. If you’re not ready to scale, hiring freelancers is a great option because it ensures that you can get more of your projects done without putting unnecessary strain on your resources.
If you are scaling up your business, you probably can still benefit from freelancers to fill in the gaps in your project docket, especially while you’re recruiting. Freelancers can also provide you with additional support for special projects or any rebranding you do as part of scaling up.
Struggling to keep up with demand? Strategize a new approach
More sales equal more money, which is great, right? If you’re not prepared to meet customers’ needs, more sales can actually be detrimental to your business — and it’s time to scale up. That might include greater production rates, improved facilities, and more sales and customer service reps.
However, you also have to revise your approach to accommodate this new demand. Ideally, you built an expansion strategy into your initial business plan. If not, it’s worth the time to do new research, consider rebranding if necessary, and hire additional help to make your business sustainable.
Wrapping Up
Above all else, ensure that you’re regularly monitoring your business’ health, from your sales numbers to your team’s productivity to your website traffic. Without having a complete portrait of your business’s health, you can’t make an informed decision on whether to scale up or simply accommodate your growth. Either way, a strong plan of action will guide you to further business success!