Blue Elevator Blog

The key to running a successful business (and the key to creating a “legacy business”) is learning what it means to scale your business.

Whether you are thinking about taking a trip aboard The U.S.S. Entrepreneur, or you have already set sail, we are all hoping to dock in Port Success.  No one starts out hoping to encounter a typhoon or ride through a tsunami.  Most business owners don’t start out with the following mission statement:

“I will start a business that will demand that I spend 80 hours a week running it.  I will spend the first part of my day doing everything I can possibly think of.  I will spend the second half of the day dealing with all the headaches I created or that came to me in the first half of the day.  Then, I will spend the bulk of my evening preparing for the next day.”

You might be surprised to read the aforementioned “reality” (if you haven’t started business yet) – or you might be someone that can relate.  Maybe your week doesn’t equate to 80 hours of “on the job stress” but there is that mantle of responsibility that you carry with you every day of the week – whether you are (or should be) conducting business or not.

If you don’t scale your business, or plan to scale your business, don’t be surprised if you don’t end up tied to your business.  Why does it seem that a lot of businesses “takeover” the owners?  It’s very easy.  It just does!  Starting a business doesn’t guarantee you a desired outcome so much as buying a puppy doesn’t guarantee you a well-trained dog.

Initially, the entrepreneur/owner may need to do it all; however, it is important to have a plan to scale the business at some point.  Whereas fish grow to the size of their aquarium, if you don’t scale your business, your company will only grow to the number of hours you work.

Scale your business; every entrepreneur must train their business (and themselves) to perform the way it should!

Whereas the answer has already been provided, the key is to scale your business.  It’s kind of like the old saying, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”  As a business owner, you have to be very deliberate about HOW and WHERE you want your business to go.  If you don’t plan your way, you will end up like a lot of business owners: working for their business!

Don’t most owners work for their businesses?  Well, yes.  But you have to be deliberate.

I would venture to say that most entrepreneurs would rather have a business that works for them – rather than a business that they work for.  If that is your goal, you need to scale your business.

With that in mind, and coupled with the idea that one has to be deliberate in their approach, what is the key?

The key is to scale your business!

A business that is scalable is one that doesn’t require a 1:1 trade-off for your investment relative to the return.  Said another way, if you worked 40 hours last week – and made $1,000, how much would you have to work this week to make $1,500?  Well, in a linear sense, it would stand to reason that you would work 60 hours: $1,000 is to 40 hours as $1,500 is to ”X” hours.  Solving for “X,” you get 60 hours.

I would submit to you that this doesn’t necessarily happen intentionally; it just happens.  When an owner feels that more is needed, they simply up and work “harder.”

If you want to scale your business, you have to work hard AND smart.

Every business is different and the solutions for creating scalability will vary.  That being said, the goal is still the same.  The point is, and wouldn’t you have to admit, that the ultimate business would be one that could carry-on each and every day without requiring your physical presence to “turn the crank.”

Often times, entrepreneurs who have been in business for a while begin to notice that they don’t have the pace or the stamina they once had.  There may still be a need and a desire for the business to perform well – and even continue well into the future; however, there may also be the desire to not work as hard.  At face value, those might seem to be opposing forces – and they are.

Nevertheless, there is a way to actually gain momentum in a business while at the same time exercise some restraint from a time commitment stand-point.  The key is to work smart.  This doesn’t mean that you haven’t been working smart, it just means that you have to become intentional about what it is that you work on.  You have to move from being “job-centric” to “company-centric.”  It means that you have to master how to scale your business.

I am not suggesting that this will happen automatically or that it is quite simply an act of “pulling away” from the daily activity.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  You have to be deliberate and set up the plan and the processes to accomplish such.  Not only that, you will have to recruit, mentor, and train the right people.

If you would like more information on this subject, I invite you to obtain a FREE downloadable “white paper” on the Blue Elevator™ web site: How to Create a Legacy Business.

Blue Elevator™ exists to help you take your “business to the next level.”  If you would like more information about how we can help you, please contact us.