Is Your Business Growing or Scaling?

Scaling means you are growing your business with minimal increase in cost. It also means you work less while making more money. Consider these scenarios below. Which category do you fit in?

Two business owners provide a similar service. One creates a custom package for each client. She has a large team and while her business has grown, her costs have increased with her sales. The other business owner has 3 packages clients choose from. Her discovery call and onboarding are automated. She has a small team, keeping her costs low while sales have grown. She is scaling her business.
Another two business owners who also provide a similar service. One charges by the hour for the work he does. He works about 50-60 hours per week and has started to subcontract work when he cannot or does not want to take it on. He pays his subcontractor half of what he charges and pockets the rest. The other business owner charges flat monthly rates. He raises his rates as he gets too busy, but does not track how much time he spends per client. Of course, the best clients are the low maintenance ones but he loves what he does and likes to support the high maintenance ones too.

We all know what it means to grow a business. But growing sales does not necessarily mean you are growing your business. Your costs may be growing equally as fast. One major risk in this approach to growth is that your additional sales could dry up quickly, but it’s harder to offload costs. So when your business takes a dip, you may struggle to recover in time.
Scaling your business can happen in a number of ways:

Automate:

The more tasks are accomplished automatically, the lower your cost and the faster it gets done. Automation can be as simple as having templated responses ready to go or using a calendar app to book appointments. At Freedom Makers, we like software like Zapier to help apps talk to each other. For instance, when someone wants to get started with us, they complete a form. Zap then automatically launches our New Client checklist. Not only is that one less task we have to do but it ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

Hire people:

Like the example above, you can hire someone to complete work for you and pocket the difference. Sure, you make less than if you would have done the work yourself. But now you have money for work you didn’t have to do.

Simplify:

Unless your business model is designed around custom work, streamline as much as you can. Offer packages, simplified pricing, standardized processes, etc.

Expand with synergy:

Partner with other small businesses to better service your clients without having to do all the work.

Structure your services to service multiple clients at one time:

In other words, shift from a one-to-one model to a one-to-many model. This could mean group sessions instead of individual/private ones.

Build systems:

Standardized processes and tools to complete repetitive tasks saves a lot of time and energy.

Diversify your revenue:

High end custom work plus smaller projects. Big corporate clients + small businesses. Different sources of revenue give you breathing room to grow.
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Freedom Makers can help you scale your company. If you need assistance for your business such as website updating, social media or systems automation, contact Freedom Makers. Our virtual assistants provide assistance with those tasks and much more. You can focus on your mission while they take care of the rest.