When the excitement of launching your new company subsides, the hard work begins. Everything you do is dedicated to encouraging as much growth as possible. But for your business to continue that upward trajectory into the future, it needs to be scalable to meet the demands of that growth.
While this can all be very demanding and stressful, it doesn’t have to be. All you need are some solid strategies for making scaling simpler. Here are 5 ways to scale your company without burning out in the process.
Automate
Automation has revolutionized the world of work. By automating your business processes, you reduce costs and incidences of human error, while optimizing your workforce and increasing efficiency. These are all benefits that help you scale your company without burning out.
Automation can be leveraged in a variety of ways, from segmenting audiences for online marketing campaigns and managing email lists to tracking stock levels and more. Your unique needs will determine how you use it in your company.
Automation does not replace employees, nor does it replace the need for human interaction. Your human workforce remains your biggest asset and is integral to the company’s success. Automation is merely an efficient tool that frees teams up to focus on other areas, such as your efforts to scale the business.
Streamline
A successful scale-up can only happen when the trial-and-error phase is well and truly behind you, and your business has found its rhythm. Streamlining your business processes is a part of this transition to the next stage of your company’s development.
Indeed, streamlining your processes allows growth to occur more organically, even before your thoughts turn to scale.
Depending on the nature of the business, work environment, team size, and established processes, streamlining workflows may be simpler for some than for others. But few start-ups move from their initial launch to scaling the business, without some refinements along the way.
When you streamline workflows and eliminate redundant processes, your workforce becomes more productive. You will reduce operational costs, and minimize delays, by clarifying all team members’ job roles and eradicating inefficiencies. And all of this makes your company easier to scale.
Delegate
Every member of your team has core skills that have made the company what it is. And these unique skill sets will continue to be of use during your scaling efforts. If you want to scale your company without burning out, learn to share the workload burden with them.
If there ever was a time to improve your delegation skills, it’s now. This will distribute workloads more evenly and prevent bottlenecks that stifle growth.
Bear in mind that delegation does not eliminate your need for oversight. However, it will take some of the pressure off you as a team leader, and make scaling the business a true team effort. The entire team is mentally and emotionally invested in making the business a success. That includes the scaling process.
But delegation won’t help if your team size doesn’t align with your plans to scale the business. Scaling your business does not necessarily entail hiring new staff. But it often does require it, at least temporarily. So, outsource the extra labor you need when and where you can, to avoid employee burnout.
Extrapolate
Extrapolation is a method used to predict values, based on existing trends, beyond a known set of data. It is successfully used in many fields, particularly finance and economics. It can be used to forecast sales data and customer base growth, helping you to assess risks and allocate resources more effectively.
So, when does extrapolation occur? Typically, after the initial exploratory phase. Nestled between a company’s exploration mode and its exploitation mode, extrapolation incorporates facets of each stage.
And it is perhaps the most important factor in your plans to scale your business.
It has even been suggested that extrapolation is an overlooked key to successful scaling.
During the extrapolation stage, you can identify how each new customer brings in additional revenue at the lowest possible cost. By focusing on extrapolation before scaling, you can make more informed decisions based on historical data, leaving less to chance, and hence minimizing risk.
Document
Unfortunately, having to spend time teaching new team members your methods can place even more strain on you during an already challenging time. But this is easily remedied. If you document all the steps you’re taking to grow the business, new team members can quickly be brought up to speed.
Interestingly, forgetting to document processes is one of the most common mistakes that entrepreneurs make when scaling their businesses. So always keep an accurate record of what you’re doing to scale the business. Revisit these guides regularly, and add any new scaling strategies that you have adopted.
Documenting the specific steps taken during the scaling process will also allow you to analyze your success at a later date, and gain deeper insights into your organization’s growth. This in turn will facilitate any future plans for further expansion of the company.