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Scale your startup; The journey to profitability

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EkoInnovationCentre
EkoInnovationCentre

This document provides 5 tips for successfully scaling up a startup: 1. Determine if your business is truly scalable without exorbitant resource costs. 2. Identify your core products, customers, and marketing channels before scaling. 3. Automate and outsource as many processes as possible to streamline operations. 4. Simplify and standardize processes so the business can run without the founder. 5. Exercise restraint when hiring, spending, and expanding to avoid overextending resources during scaling.

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Scale your
Scale your startup
Preparing to ScaleY our Startup Scaling up can be a make-or-break moment for your company. If you scale your startup too quickly or recklessly, and you’ll create a host of organizational problems that will be hard to undo. Premature scaling may even cause your business to fail. And if you scale too slowly, however, and you’ll miss out on key opportunities that come with greater resources and revenue. As you plan for the next phase of your company’s development, remember these five tips for a successful scale-up. As you plan for the next phase of your company’s development, remember these five tips for a successful scale-up. EkoInnovationCentre
1. Ask Yourself If YourBusinessIs Really Scalable Even though you might have a killer product that serves a real need, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a cornerstone for a scaled-up business. Be honest as you examine your offerings—if scaling will come at the cost of inordinate amounts of resources, maybe it’s better to stay a lean, successful, small business. EkoInnovationCentre
2. IdentifyYour “Core” Y ou need to know your core products, customers, and marketing channels before you try to take your business to the next level. Not convinced? There’s hard data to back up that assertion: a 2011 study by The Startup Genome looked at over 3,200 startupsand found that 74% of them failed because they tried to scale up too quickly. EkoInnovationCentre
3. Automate or Outsource Everything You Can If any aspect of your startup is labor-intensive, you won’t be able to scale effectively. You need to start figuring out a means to streamline every process you can. ] This includes automating payroll and billing, creating training videos to quickly bring new hires up to speed, finding ways to automate marketing your business, and so on. EkoInnovationCentre
4. Make Your BusinessWorkable WithoutYou Y our process needs to be simplified and streamlined to the point that even if you disappeared off the face of the earth, someone could easily come in and know what to do. Y our process must be easily understood and repeatable. Don’t let anything about your business be so fragile that less talented or unmotivated employees can bring it down. EkoInnovationCentre
why: 5. Don’t Go Overboard in These Key Areas Three areas where you must show great restraint as you scale your startup: hiring, spending, and building. Here’s • Spending: Again, there’s a tendency for startups to get loose with their money once they’ve raised a lot during the fundraising stage. Keep all of your spending focused on growing the business. • Building: Once you’ve achieved product-market fit and started scaling up based on that main offering, don’t go crazy trying to add features or related products. Make sure you can do one thing better than anyone before you start building new stuff. • Hiring: Remember, you need to stay lean during the scaling process. Don’t hire too many people (especially middle managers or specialists). These take away from your core competencies and leave you prone to trying to scale other areas too quickly. EkoInnovationCentre
ving the growth as gs to start le your source t’s not . Don’t u’re y scalable. nd lean if What You Need to Remember Scalability is a mindset that’s all about ha systems and people in place to make your seamless as possible. Here are some thin thinking about now as you prepare to sca startup. • Figure out how to automate or out everything you possibly can, especially if directly related to your core competencies • Stay disciplined with your money. spend on new people or features until yo absolutely ready to do so. • Make sure your business is actuall There’s nothing wrong with staying small the product or service demands it. EkoInnovationCentre
Scale your startup; The journey to profitability

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Scale your startup; The journey to profitability

  • 3. Preparing to ScaleY our Startup Scaling up can be a make-or-break moment for your company. If you scale your startup too quickly or recklessly, and you’ll create a host of organizational problems that will be hard to undo. Premature scaling may even cause your business to fail. And if you scale too slowly, however, and you’ll miss out on key opportunities that come with greater resources and revenue. As you plan for the next phase of your company’s development, remember these five tips for a successful scale-up. As you plan for the next phase of your company’s development, remember these five tips for a successful scale-up. EkoInnovationCentre
  • 4. 1. Ask Yourself If YourBusinessIs Really Scalable Even though you might have a killer product that serves a real need, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a cornerstone for a scaled-up business. Be honest as you examine your offerings—if scaling will come at the cost of inordinate amounts of resources, maybe it’s better to stay a lean, successful, small business. EkoInnovationCentre
  • 5. 2. IdentifyYour “Core” Y ou need to know your core products, customers, and marketing channels before you try to take your business to the next level. Not convinced? There’s hard data to back up that assertion: a 2011 study by The Startup Genome looked at over 3,200 startupsand found that 74% of them failed because they tried to scale up too quickly. EkoInnovationCentre
  • 6. 3. Automate or Outsource Everything You Can If any aspect of your startup is labor-intensive, you won’t be able to scale effectively. You need to start figuring out a means to streamline every process you can. ] This includes automating payroll and billing, creating training videos to quickly bring new hires up to speed, finding ways to automate marketing your business, and so on. EkoInnovationCentre
  • 7. 4. Make Your BusinessWorkable WithoutYou Y our process needs to be simplified and streamlined to the point that even if you disappeared off the face of the earth, someone could easily come in and know what to do. Y our process must be easily understood and repeatable. Don’t let anything about your business be so fragile that less talented or unmotivated employees can bring it down. EkoInnovationCentre
  • 8. why: 5. Don’t Go Overboard in These Key Areas Three areas where you must show great restraint as you scale your startup: hiring, spending, and building. Here’s • Spending: Again, there’s a tendency for startups to get loose with their money once they’ve raised a lot during the fundraising stage. Keep all of your spending focused on growing the business. • Building: Once you’ve achieved product-market fit and started scaling up based on that main offering, don’t go crazy trying to add features or related products. Make sure you can do one thing better than anyone before you start building new stuff. • Hiring: Remember, you need to stay lean during the scaling process. Don’t hire too many people (especially middle managers or specialists). These take away from your core competencies and leave you prone to trying to scale other areas too quickly. EkoInnovationCentre
  • 9. ving the growth as gs to start le your source t’s not . Don’t u’re y scalable. nd lean if What You Need to Remember Scalability is a mindset that’s all about ha systems and people in place to make your seamless as possible. Here are some thin thinking about now as you prepare to sca startup. • Figure out how to automate or out everything you possibly can, especially if directly related to your core competencies • Stay disciplined with your money. spend on new people or features until yo absolutely ready to do so. • Make sure your business is actuall There’s nothing wrong with staying small the product or service demands it. EkoInnovationCentre