You’re ready to take your business to the next step and you think you’ve identified the expansion that will help you get there, whether it’s opening a new location, offering new products and services, or targeting a new market. That’s not all you need to scale successfully, however. Here, we’re going to look at the importance of planning in advance and where you need to make sure you have the right preparations in place to ensure you’re ready for that growth.
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The funds
Scaling costs money, naturally. New hires, new equipment, new office spaces are all far from cheap. You need funding, but you need a plan on how you’re going to secure it. Get some ideas on how to look for funding from this business blog – Startup Donut, and make sure you have everything that will be required from you for the funding process. This includes records on your existing finances and the business plan of how you’re going to carry out the scaling efforts and profit from them.
The team
It’s not always the case, but if you scale, you are also likely to need to shake up your team a little. If you plan on taking on a host of new employees, you need to make the method of hiring and integrating them as seamless as possible. Create an effective recruitment drive and ensure you have the right systematic training programs in place to help them acclimate to the business as quickly as possible. Bear in mind that you don’t need to scale all teams directly. For instance, your admin and support staff might need to grow significantly, but you might already have enough sales team members, so scale selectively, rather than across the board.
The place
With how many new people you need, identify the kind of space you’re moving to as soon as possible. Have a budget and schedule set, and a team of commercial movers ready to help. What holds a lot of office moves back nowadays isn’t just the progress of moving all your equipment and furniture, but the infrastructure, too. With solutions like server relocation services – Mustard IT can help reduce your downtime by making sure that all-important tech infrastructure is set up as quickly as possible, so your team can hit the ground running. The more downtime, the more expensive the relocation is likely to be.
The marketing
To start paying for the costs of scaling, you’re going to need to increase your marketing budget. Scaling your marketing means defining what your growth trajectory is and weighting your budget towards the right platforms. If you’re targeting a new market, you may need to consider content marketing and ads more specifically targeted as those demographics. If you’re offering new services or products, then a great marketing launch for them can help speed up the return you see on them.
Scaling can be exciting and feel like you’re finally fulfilling your business dreams, but if you don’t plan it well, it can all end up falling apart because you don’t have the resources you need to see it through. Take your time and get your plans in place before you get everything moving.
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