Introducing the SCALE Method, the 5 Steps to Successfully Scale
Oct 02, 2018
You are doing everything right. You’re growing a business. You’re hiring people. You’re acquiring new customers. You even got funded! You’re pretty sure that you’re going to beat the odds that 90% of startups fail.
It’s a pretty complicated balancing act to make sure that you’re in the 10% of successful startups. In order to successfully scale, you need to make sure that you’re managing all these moving parts…and avoiding the ones that could be your downfall. But what are the key issues you want to address?
There are actually several potential roadblocks to your startup’s success, but when the Startup Genome Project did the research, they learned that one of the biggest factors was that 70% of startups scale prematurely. Knowing when to scale dramatically improves your chances of startup success. After all, when we say that the goal of a startup is to not be a startup, we don’t mean that goal is to close down, but grow.
And with that in mind, we are introducing the SCALE Method. We use the SCALE Method to help you identify and address the issues newly funded startups need to address to successfully scale.
The SCALE Method was designed to pinpoint and address the most common failure points that startups experience. We’ve broken them down into five areas:
- Streamline Processes
Hiring, project management, order fulfillment, and even document storage, are just some of the areas that must be streamlined and running like a well-oiled machine in order for your startup to be able to focus on growth and scaling. - Cash Flow Management
One of the top reason most startups fail is running through cash too quickly, usually through expenses and poor buying decisions. You need to identify the best, most cost-effective ways to complete tasks and projects, so you don’t run out of money. - Activate Support
Connecting with investors, board members, and mentors is crucial to giving you the financial and operational support you need to succeed. But so is conducting due diligence on these folks. Identify the support you need, and then make sure that your candidates are the right fit in terms of experience and personality. - Learn the Pain Points
Identifying the need of your target market is crucial so that you are solving a problem caused by these pain points. However, you also need to determine proof of concept by making sure that this is a pain point that your market wants solved. - Empower Your Team
A corporate culture where everyone is working toward the same goal is imperative. Developing a strong mix of autonomy and collaboration, as well as allowing everyone to work in their genius, helps productivity skyrocket and keeps your team happy.
In short, the best way to avoid being a statistic is to plan for the problems that cause failure. Use the SCALE Method to review each potential problem area and strategize your growth to compensate or avoid these problem areas.
You can learn more about the SCALE Method and review some case studies here.
Originally published at www.ceotoolkits.com.