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Entrepreneurs: 8 Keys to Scale Your Business Quickly

I’ve created over 753 strategic plans for entrepreneurs. At the core of each one are two things: Simplicity and Scale.

Here are eight things to cover in your strategic plan to grow with less complexity.

Before we jump in – it’s important to realize that the same things that make your business fun (and profitable) to run are the things that make it irresistible to buyers when you want to exit. So you’re getting a double benefit focusing on these 8 keys.

Here are the keys:

1. Margin

Make sure you know your margins and they’re healthy for your industry. Too many entrepreneurs put their head in the sand because numbers are scary. Here’s the hack: just ask your bookkeeper for a report. And read it. Seriously, the numbers are already done for you.

2. LTV

Know the lifetime value of a customer. If you don’t know what a customer is worth you’re flying blind. You can’t plan marketing, staffing, or growth. Know and grow this number.

3. Systems

All wealth comes from systems. A company is a machine that takes in capital, people, and resources and produces customers and profit. Without defined systems you don’t have a machine. You have a medieval workshop. Those suck to work in.

4. Optimization

Optimize your processes to deliver higher quality for less time and expense. Many businesses can increase profits significantly by just fixing poorly run processes – and use that cash to scale. You’ll need to – scaling with bad processes is a recipe for failure.

5. Delegation

Learn to delegate the right way. A company where the owner is necessary isn’t a business, it’s a job. Learning how to delegate in a way that’s a win for both you and your team is an invaluable skill.

6. Management

Manage your team with clear goals and accountability. That starts at the top. For consistent results make sure to use business scorecards to manage by numbers, not by emotion.

7. Hiring

Compromising on hiring because you just “need a body” will cost you in the long run. Hiring an A-Player will multiply your business. The wrong hire can set you back years (it happened to me).

8. Retention

A company scales by upgrading product, team, and customers. Keep the right people, and shed the rest.

The Scale Cycle

These eight factors are part of my Scale Cycle that helps entrepreneurs how to scale their business with simplicity. Start by picking the one that will have the biggest effect on your company, tackle it, then move on to the next. Then… Repeat. It seems simple, because it is.

Get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.

December 27, 2022
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How to Scale Your Company Without More Sales

I’m constantly getting pitched by agencies telling me they’ll get me more leads and sales. If you hire them, you’ve hired an interior decorator for a house that’s on fire.

Here’s why I ignore Agency Spammers, and how I learned how to Scale Without Sales:

The Hard Sell

Agency Spammers have gotten more and more outlandish. Crazy guarantees and unrealistic timelines. I used to run an agency.

I know that 99% of the pitches are BS. I’ll show you why I ignore the noise and grow revenue faster than signing up from some sketchy pitch.

Agency Spammers try to get your greed glands going – think of all the $$ you’ll generate. BUT at the end of the day what we want is profit: CASH WE KEEP.

More sales is nice, but if we don’t have a cash-flowing business then it’s all for nothing.

What’s The Reality?

The reality is different: Let’s say for the sake of argument the Agency Spammer can deliver a huge pile of leads/sales. (most can’t, they’re just churning through clients hoping a few will stick, but let’s pretend you got the 1 in 93 who can deliver)

If they do deliver, how fast will your company break?

What happens as you’re reeling from more leads, sales calls, and complexity?

What will happen when your current, loyal customers have their experience impacted because you can’t keep up? Stuff’s going to break.

What To Do Before Scaling

That’s why to scale, you DON’T look to sales first. Before we pile on more customer acquisition I make sure:

1) I have margins that can staff for A++ customer delivery

2) I install systems to onboard new clients smoothly

3) My existing customers don’t lose when new customers come on board.

Here’s how to do it:

MARGINS

Piling on customers if you have bad margins will a deep hole you can’t afford to get out of. Fix your margins first. Examine: a) What you’re charging. Can you charge more to enhance the experience?

COGS

Can you deliver for less? Yardstick: gross margins > 80%

SYSTEMS

Before taking on new customers make sure you’ve mapped out their first 100 days of experiencing your company. You get to choose between: a) refunds, bad reviews, no referrals, no repeat customers, OR b) amazing testimonials, spontaneous referrals, and huge LTV.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Make sure you can take the pulse of all customers, regularly. This will make sure you catch problems of existing, loyal customers getting shafted when new ones come on board. It turns customers with problems into promoters who refer business.

So how do I scale by NOT focusing on sales first?

1) make more by fixing margins

2) get more testimonials and 5-star reviews (we average 4.9/5), which makes selling easy

3) get more referrals ALL of these before pushing more sales into the pipe.

Here’s the thing: if you’ve fixed these, then when you DO go sell you’ll scale with far less effort.

Get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.

December 13, 2022
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