Your dream project is no longer just an idea; it’s a reality now. You’ve successfully launched your business and it’s steadily growing. Now you might be questioning yourself: How to scale a startup? But there’s another vital question to consider: Is your business scalable? While some startups are easier to scale than others, all companies must grow.

Here are a few things to consider to assess your startup’s readiness for scalability:

• Do you have a viable product, and does it fit the market?

• Are you financially prepared to take the risk? Do you have funds available for unexpected costs that you may incur?

• Does your marketing strategy embody the scale up of your startup? Whether it’s targeting new audiences or expanding into new markets, your marketing strategy needs to reflect the direction your business is going.

One common trait between all types of startups is identifying the difference between growth and scaling. This applies whether you’re a business with dozens of employees or a duo working out of a studio apartment. All businesses are created out of passion, and are driven to grow into valuable, scalable organizations that offer excellent return on investment. Achieving a positive evolution as a startup, whether growing or scaling, requires perseverance, dedication, passion and people skills, and a strategic allocation of time, energy, and resources.

Before going through the 12 fundamental strategies that founders should implement, clarifying the difference between growth and scaling would be a great starting point. Because of development costs, entrepreneurs navigating the early stages of startups have become obsessed with the concept of scaling.

What is the difference between growing & scaling?

Growing is the process of increasing a company’s profit through investments in human resources and technologies. This process is linear: first you invest, then you get more profit. While you're growing your business and making more money, you’re spending a lot as well. At some point, client acquisition costs can be too high to maintain a profitable project.

On the other hand, scaling is when a company increases its revenue without significant investments. Scaling typically focuses on process automation to reach a wider audience. Therefore, scaling is less expensive and time-consuming than growing, and allows for a quick revenue boost. Usually, a scaling startup has already completed the growth stage, and is ready to bring in new customers and revenue without significant additional expenses.

Founders who want to thrive as they navigate through the startup journey are guided by a forward-thinking business strategy; one that clearly differentiates what growth will look like and how scaling will be achieved.

While failure remains the dreaded outcome, startups that properly grow and bloom into sustained scalability require an open mind, a strong will to learn, and the ability to adapt. Scaling is definitely appealing: fewer resources, more profit. Premature scaling, however, might result in financial distress and bankruptcy.

Successfully building a startup requires strategic use of digital advertising, outsourcing, and endless networking among others. Implementing the following fundamental strategies will substantially increase your chances of being the needle that masters the haystack:

1. Invest in Marketing & Master the Power of Digital Advertising

Though marketing is an entrepreneur’s biggest challenge, it’s the only way to represent your product and reach your target audience. There may be several marketing strategies, approaches, and channels for promotion depending on your niche, industry, and target market. Some of the most common marketing strategies include direct marketing, content marketing, SEO optimization, advertisement, branding, and social media.

As new digital technologies continue to evolve rapidly, the way businesses interact with consumers via digital media has also changed. Digital advertising is, unquestionably, a key element of modern-day marketing strategies. Applied accurately, digital advertisements significantly boost your online identity. Growing your online presence gives your brand broader visibility, thus fostering conversions and sales at an increased rate.

2. Maintain Sustainability Through a Strong Support Network

Nurturing a business from conception through growth and effective scaling requires passion and willpower; this is only sustained when surrounded by like-minded people to develop your support system. Capitalize on local meetups in your area, and integrate yourself into business support groups that will empower you and your startup.

Lean on the right people, fellow entrepreneurs, and friends, for brainstorming, feedback, and constructive criticism. Building and maintaining a strong support system will provide you with a sense of accountability, a wealth of information and perspectives to keep you on track.

3. Maximize Time & Resources by Outsourcing

You can easily find yourself being pulled in a million different directions when you decide to scale up. There will probably be additional hiring, marketing, and business planning to do. For example, large businesses have the ability to hire for practically any position. For a startup, it may not be as reasonable to invest time and resources in recruitment, especially when it comes to occasional or non-essential tasks. This is why it’s important to outsource and automate processes wherever and whenever possible. This will give you more time to focus on your primary business objectives whilst the work is getting done.

You might think you’re the only qualified person to complete a specific task up to your standards; chances are that isn’t the case. Taking on too much will lead to burnout and impede your business growth; Therefore, knowing when and what to delegate is key to scaling up.

4. Meet the Expectations of a Transformed Customer Base

With consumers having instant access to more information than ever, businesses are forced to evolve and adjust to a transformed customer base. This shift is favorable for both parties; an informed customer experiencing clear and transparent communication reduces frustration or delay.

When you’re dedicated and alert to your customer’s needs, you understand what your product needs to offer and how you should adapt it to make them happy. Knowing your ideal customer may be time consuming; however, this will lead you to a much more focused market proposition.

5. Automate What You Can & Stay Agile

Automation helps you expand your business activities while preserving valuable resources. Scaling your business can be unpredictable; the world is constantly changing, and so should you. Stick to your goals, but be prepared to shift course if necessary. As a startup, your time is very limited; you might want to automate as many business processes as you can. While automation may initially seem very technical or hard, it’s usually essential for long-term growth. Thankfully, you’ve got tons of business process automation tools at your disposal.

6. Invest in Technologies

Make sure the technology you employ and your software system are scalable enough to manage much higher loads, rapid upgrades, and broader functionalities before transitioning to a new level. Before you invest in growing your business and the risks become too high, a fast check-up would be far more time and money efficient. Also, bear in mind to check your system's security to ensure that data leaks won't occur.

7. Hire the Right Talent: Keep a Hiring/Firing Balance

Scaling a startup requires quick and proactive solutions. Hire people who aren’t only excellent specialists, but are also interested in working namely with your business.

8. Keep an Eye on Your PR & Social Media

When you scale up your startup, the world starts watching you; every mistake jeopardizes your reputation. While large companies can survive challenging situations, you may not be ready for it. Establish and maintain a clear representation of your business in the media by carefully planning your PR campaign and steering away of controversial situations.

9. Reconsider Processes that No Longer Serve Your Business

When scaling, use fewer, but more effective resources. Start documenting, make sure you work only with essentials, don’t add too many variables, and add enough structure by arranging all the necessary processes and hierarchy allowing your team to perform their tasks fast and efficiently.

10. Learn to Delegate: Make Your Business Workable Without You

Running your startup is much easier in its early stages. At the very beginning, founders fulfill the roles of managers, marketers, recruiters, office managers, or any other needed roles in the team. As your project grows and scales, the pool of tasks and responsibilities grows remarkably.

Though you might still want to stay in control of everything, it becomes physically impossible. Doing everything on your own is not a wise choice. As your team grows, learn to delegate and trust people. You can’t master every aspect of your business; let the professionals you’ve hired do their jobs.

11. Secure Your Financials: Move to the Next Round of Funding

Moving from startup to scale up implies great changes; it requires you to have a clear understanding of your target market, a viable product, an established corporate culture, a reliable team, and, of course, funding. You’ll need a good amount of cash to expand your business; the best approach to secure funding is to reach out to investors. Identify your cost of scaling, and find the right people to invest in your business.

12. Slow Down & Set Up the Right Expectations

Last but not least: Don’t rush the process, and have reasonable expectations. Startups occasionally fail to expand as quickly as we would like them to. Making incremental, steady progress is more important for your company. This way, as you advance gradually, you can respond to market developments and update your product accordingly.

Conclusion:

Scaling your business can be challenging. As a business owner, it’s important that you create an environment that embraces continuous improvement; keep evaluating your business and look for new ways to evolve. Poorly managed and inefficient processes are one of the biggest things that hold most startups back from scaling.

If you work out how to automate and optimize internal processes, and outsource everything that isn’t directly related to your core competencies, you can make this process much easier and less stressful. With the right business processes, people, and strategies, you’re bound to scale successfully.