Anyone can scale a business 10X over a decade, but doing it in a year is much more challenging. Even more difficult still is scaling 1,000 percent every year for ten years straight.
However, with the right approach, it can be done. Here’s a business strategy on what to do:
Forecast The Way The Wind Is Blowing
Trying to predict the future is a fool’s game. Hardly anyone ever pulls it off. However, as a business, you can always check which way the wind is blowing.
If you know what’s likely to happen, you can start making plans today. You can build a business designed to scale rapidly, once demand materializes, instead of panicking the moment orders go stratospheric.
If there are compelling reasons to believe that your industry won’t grow rapidly, take your foot off the gas. Focus more on catering to your existing niche.
Focus On Quality Over Quantity
Serving as many people as you can sounds tempting, but it rarely works in practice. Instead, you usually wind up delivering a lower quality service which, ultimately, detracts from your brand.
Instead of taking that approach, focus on consistency and perfect service. Then allow word-of-mouth to naturally get the information out to others. This method of scaling tends to snowball, allowing you to increase prices while you put in place new processes to increase volumes.
Avoid Expensive Offices
As a startup, there’s no need to rent out expensive office space in the middle of a large city. It drains your funds and doesn’t offer much-added value.
Instead, find out about modular buildings and whether you might be able to adapt them to your purpose. This way, you can scale without locking yourself into any multi-year tenancy agreements.
Stay True To Your Values
Google is a good example of a company that once had great values, but then let them go, leading to brand damage. You don’t want to make the same mistake.
Choose your values carefully, and then stick with them. Let your customers know that your business has principles.
Focus On Just One Thing
In business, it’s generally a bad idea to think about what you’re not. Rather, successful firms always concentrate on the things that they do well.
Pick the one thing that you do better than everyone else, and then double down on it. Don’t try to be the next “brand X.” Instead, just be yourself. The community will naturally feel attracted to you.
Make Decisions That Will Help You Scale
The decisions you make today link to the size of the business you think you will have tomorrow. If you think that your turnover will be £100,000 per year, then you will make different decisions compared to if it is £100 million per year.
Think carefully about how big your enterprise could become and how long it’s likely to take. Then factor this into your day-to-day decision-making.
Takeaway Business Strategy
Growing a business rapidly is highly rewarding, but it can also be risky. If you grow without meeting your customers’ needs, then you could still fail.