Scaling Your Small Business

Dorian Cunion
6 days ago
3 min read

This past week, I had the pleasure of doing a recorded coaching session with Rashanda Siska, owner of High-Pressure Designs Apparel, Printing, and Embroidery . She has been in business for two years and was seeking help in filtering through all the best practices and tips she has learned over the last few years, attending boot camps, training sessions, and workshops to develop a plan for scaling her business. You can watch the entire video of the coaching session on our YouTube page. In this blog, I will provide a high-level overview of the three actions a small business owner should take to scale their business.

Man smiling in the corner, blue and yellow geometric background. Text: "YOUR PATH, SMALL BUSINESS TIPS, SCALING YOUR BUSINESS."

Create a vision for scaling.

One of the first things you have to do when scaling your business is to define what success looks like. Scaling can mean many things, from acquiring new customers to opening an additional location. The clearer you can be about your revenue, income, and business model goals, the easier it will be for you to attract the right people and build the right systems to achieve your goals.

Take the time to put your vision on paper. Effectively communicating your vision of success to your employees, contractors, and vendors will help you acquire the support you need to shift from where your business is today to how you want it to be in the future. Over time, your vision will evolve. Evolving is part of maturing as a business owner. But periodically declaring what success looks like makes it easier to attain.

Build capacity

Once you have clarified your business vision, it's time to assess your current situation and determine the resources and personnel you need to convert your goal into reality. Whenever I consult with clients, I begin with the Business Model Canvas. The Business Model Canvas is a one-page document that helps you outline the key activities, resources, and partners necessary for success. As you compare your business's current state to its desired future, you will identify gaps. Those gaps need to be filled by improving your current processes, leveraging internal talent, or partnering with external organizations that can help you grow. Defining your business gaps and outlining how you plan to close them will help you prioritize where to allocate your time and resources.

Learn to say no

The most challenging skill for small business owners to learn is how to say no. Everyone around you has an idea of how you can improve your business. While many of these suggestions are good-hearted, you do not have the time, money, or resources to be everything to everyone.

Making the hard decision about where you will spend your time, who you will hire, what products you will sell, and other key activities will determine the success of your business. It is impossible to make the right decision every time. You will pass up opportunities that you should have accepted. You will also make decisions that, in hindsight, you should have passed on. However, over time, if you have systems in place for setting goals and evaluating outcomes, you will build your decision-making competency.

Summary

Scaling a business requires a lot of trial and error. Anyone who tells you it is easy is likely not being honest or is selling you an unsustainable tactic. Your competition can replicate anything that comes to you easily in business. Real value comes from identifying a problem that you are uniquely positioned to solve and solving it better than others in the marketplace. This level of entrepreneurship requires a plan. It requires infrastructure. It requires an ongoing focus on the distinct needs of your customers, along with the efficient operation of your business model.

Watch the video that inspired this post.