Running a small, niche business is challenging.
You have to wear many hats, reinvent the wheel daily, and provide a bespoke service to clients. Top entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles share how you scale and serve more clients without losing money and going insane.
1. Get known.
You can’t scale if no one knows you. Whether it’s through video, podcasts, articles or paid advertising (likely all of that), you need to get out of obscurity to scale. Your brand needs more attention. You need to generate enough awareness to own the entire market!
But keep this in mind: You won’t scale without spending time and energy. And time is money, so scaling always costs something. Almost every company takes on some debt to grow. Look at Apple: They aren’t afraid to borrow money to further expand.
Also, most businesses could increase their monthly revenue simply through better training on how to sell and close. The more money you bring in by being better trained, the more cash you’ll have to expand. —Grant Cardone, sales expert who has built a $750-million real estate empire, and NYT-bestselling author; follow Grant on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube
2. Promote internally.
Rapid growth for any company can be difficult. I know this firsthand from scaling Redline Steel from zero to $30 million within two years. To achieve this kind of rapid growth, do two things. First, focus on your supply chain (everything from manufacturing to fulfillment distribution), and make the adjustments necessary to ensure that you’ll be able to keep up with an influx of orders.
Second, invest in the right leaders and management to help you. At my company, we hire our management team internally, just like the military. Everyone starts at a base level and works in a few different departments. As value and leadership are displayed, we promote internally. This incentivizes everyone to work hard and provide as much value as possible.
Ultimately, scaling a small business is about people. It takes the right people in every department for you to properly scale and maintain that growth. —Colin Wayne, CEO of Redline Steel; read about Colin: His Unexpected Journey From Soldier to Fitness Model to Running a $30 Million Business; follow Colin on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube
3. Build out end to end.
There are two necessary elements to any business. One is the front end (marketing and sales), and the other is the back end (e.g. operations, delivery, financials).
When scaling, your first focus is on the front end because without money and cash flow, you’re DOA (dead on arrival). You need money for momentum.
Once you have an influx of capital from automatic lead generation, it’s much easier to build your team with new hires, fix delivery issues, and leverage that cash flow to grow. —Scott Oldford, founder of The R.O.I. Method; helps business owners scale multi-million dollar businesses using two core frameworks discovered after growing his own multiple seven-figure businesses
4. Prove your business concept, hire and build systems.
Before trying to scale, ensure that you’ve proven your business concept. Doubling down on an idea that isn’t working will burn through cash fast. But there are two ways to scale a winning concept.
One, hire amazing people who can carry the load. Don’t do it all yourself. With the right people (ideally, smarter than you), you can delegate tasks and trust that things will progress without your active involvement.
Two, build automated systems. At our company, we built better “help” resources, allowing our customers to independently get the answers they needed, reducing support requests. We also relied heavily on project management tools so our team could collaborate, planning out marketing and promotion calendars in advance. Finally, we invested in our user experience. The easier your product or service is to use and understand, the better your adoption rates and the faster you’ll grow. —Kenny Rueter, co-founder of Kajabi; three consecutive years on the Inc. 5000
5. Leverage.
Transforming your business into an empire isn’t easy, but starting to is. Leverage is always the way to grow a business and make it more efficient.
The biggest mistake small business owners make is asking “what” their business needs instead of “who” their business needs in order to grow. The missing ingredient for real, sustainable growth is always a “who,” not a “what.”
Start by making a list of the tasks that you enjoy the most, are best at, and that impact your bottom line the greatest. You should be spending most, if not all, of your time on these tasks.
Next, make a list of everything else you do. These are tasks that are likely diluting your focus and stunting your business’s growth. They’re also the things that can easily become the job description for your next part-time hire.
Lastly, make a list of the things that aren’t being done that need to be done to make your business bigger and better. This is your “missing person’s report.” It’s the person or position that’s absent but needed in your business.
If you’re the cook, waitress and bottle washer, your lack of leverage is killing your business’s potential. Don’t be afraid to start small (part-time) and work your way into hiring a full-time position. Also, remember, a bad hire costs you money, a good hire saves you money, and a great hire makes you money! —Shaun Rawls, lifelong entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Rawls Consulting
6. Run paid ads.
Running paid traffic on Facebook, Youtube or Google to generate leads and scale up is the one thing that every business owner should focus on or outsource. Deciding whether to outsource comes down to personality. Do you enjoy the thought of running ads for your business? If you don’t, seek the help of a professional agency, but go in with your eyes open. Interviewing the prospective agency is imperative before hiring them. Here are three critical things you should ask:
First, what type of reporting will you access? Numbers are your bottom line; you must be able to track and assess them — they will either show gradual improvement or potential disappointment. Second, what will the communication process be? You must have access to the team in charge of your paid ads. Finally, when will you see results? Be mindful that progress takes time. It’s a red flag if an agency promises overnight success. Results will be gradual — you’re running a marathon, not a sprint. —Liz Herrera, founder and CEO of I Build Your Brand and former global top-20 online poker earner, as featured in “The Mental Game of Poker” book; follow Liz on YouTube
7. Build a team and avoid the “Daddy” syndrome.
It wasn’t until I met Grant Cardone in person that he said, “You’ll never grow on your own. You need a team.” My niche business is landscape design, and it’s very challenging when everyone wants only you. There are only so many hours in a day, and it’s difficult to scale.
What helps is managing clients’ expectations up front. When I delegate a project, I personally introduce them to the project manager who’ll oversee it under my watchful eye.
Resist the urge to manage everything. When you start saying to yourself, “I can do it faster and better,” detach. Avoid encouraging the “Daddy, Daddy” syndrome, meaning a worker comes running to you for help when faced with an issue. Encourage people to approach you with solutions, not complaints.
If you’re scaling, you’ll wear a lot of hats for a long time; deal with it. The grind is hard; just push through it. I didn’t have my first employee for seven years. The downside was I got used to doing everything myself, which isn’t sustainable. —Steve Griggs, founder and CEO of Steve Griggs Design; NYC’s premier landscape designer transforming backyards and rooftop gardens into private getaways
From: Forbes
