biz owners- what are some useful tips on how to avoid scaling too big, too fast?
Grow using cash, not debt.
Growing is great! Just obsessively check that all departments are still laser focused on your core customer…
Don't only rely on full-time employees to get the work done. Build a flexible, layered workforce (aka leverage freelancers, part-timers, outsourced teams, and seasonal help).
Build a Solid Foundation Before Adding Floors✅
Set realistic goals and develop a growth roadmap based on your financials and market growth, and align your entire organization to them.📈 🎯
Don’t use a new PayPal account 🤣 I remember a time we scaled a new dropshipping store to 50k USD within 3 weeks and PayPal was holding 30k of our funds so we couldn’t reinvest it back in time to keep scaling.
Set your ideas free. If they come back to you (with interest from others), they're yours. If not, they were never meant to be.
Making sure that the foundation is strong to allow for optimal growth.
Take time to learn why some engagements work and some don’t - both internally and with clients. Embed these learnings into your company’s core values. It’s a learning process that takes a while until you’re able to hone in on what is important to the DNA of your company. Always be open to learning.
Staff Business & Operations Consultant at deranged ApS | RevOps | Automation | CRM Specialist | HubSpot | Pipedrive | Sales | Business Consulting
1moSome insightful answers on here. In my experience, one of the most important strategies to avoid scaling “too big, too fast” in business is to focus on optimizing your business processes before aggressively pursuing growth. If things don’t work when you’re a small team, how do you expect them to work when you’re a big team? Numerous scale ups fall into the trap of scaling rapidly without first ensuring that their internal operations are efficient and sustainable, and when cash flow doesn’t meet expectations layoffs become inevitable, alongside the aftereffects of layoffs, like survivor syndrome (essentially remaining staff dissatisfaction), which only puts your business further back. Optimise from the start and your business has a much stronger foundation to build upon. As the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day.