The road to running and establishing a successful startup is not easy as it is paved with many pitfalls. A lot of work goes into building a successful workplace as panning out targets and revenues. Scaling up is a make or break for many startups which are trying to reach out to a broader client base. Here are some important transitional pointers which will help you bridge the gap between starting up and scaling up.
Ways to handle a scale up
Establish market demographic:
Startups are continuously trying to identify the perfect market fit for their products or services. The key to scaling up is to establish a perfect market fit. Then the onus lies on the startup to figure out the growth numbers and establish targets and add a time frame to it. A good startup will have to be ready to handle the additional work by having a well established workflow so they do not have to compromise on the targets due to lack of preparation. When Garrett Camp, the co founder of popular taxi service app Uber, had to pay an exorbitant sum for hiring a taxi to go out with his friends, he saw an opportunity to reduce the cost of direct transportation. He realised sharing the cost with people can make it affordable for the people and that is how Uber began—by finding the perfect product fit.
Automation:
Automation is an important part of scaling up as it allows the startup to focus its resources where they can be useful. Tasks like onboarding, payroll and invoicing, amongst many others, can be automated. Documenting workflows and building a knowledge resource can also play a key role in training new resources. Shifting to cloud based platforms will offer a huge amount of relief, owing to not having to worry about missing any key piece of information. American car manufacturer Ford began with a group of people working on assembling a car. Henry Ford realised if he could cut down on the production time for making a single car, he could sell the cars faster. This led to the beginning of the assembly line concept, which was later adapted by multiple industries.
Managing funding and revenues:
While it is a huge relief for startups when they secure funding, there is also a high chance the funds may be mismanaged if there is no budget in place. This can be avoided if the startup has already established its market demographic and has a competent finance team in place. A good example would be how the Lehman Brothers, after becoming the fourth largest investment firm, mismanaged its funds by overlooking real estate problems. This led to them filing for bankruptcy.
Defining hierarchy and work roles:
A startup has a good chance of scaling up if the work can be picked up by a team member when a founder is not available. Establishing clear roles to each member so they don’t lose track of their goals is important. As a startup slowly begins scaling up, it needs to slowly deviate away from the model where a single employee is juggling multiple roles. With more members and revenue flowing in to support the scale up, having well defined roles can help in reducing unproductivity. Bringing in a managerial structure helps in managing your resources better, along with providing leadership experiences as well.
Prevent burnouts:
Burnouts among employees are common occurrences in startups, to which even the founders are subject. This needs to be addressed as it affects the mental and physical health of the individual, which in turn could affect the performance of the team. There needs to be a healthy wellness program in place and good employee satisfaction levels which can be achieved by various programs such as leaves, allowances and the like. A lot of companies began to take note of this and responded by offering unlimited paid time offs, creating employee wellness programs, offering attractive paternity and maternity leaves. Recently, Microsoft tested a four day work week in Japan, thanks to which the employee productivity increased by 38 %.
While there is no firm road map to scaling up, keeping an eye out for the above pointers could help with having an organic scale up. If the problems with scaling up are still affecting the company’s growth or revenues, it is important to take expert advice to help with the scaling up.
Read about how to start a business here: A SIMPLE GUIDE TO STARTING A BUSINESS
