Why did you get into business? Was it to struggle? To do all the work yourself? Or did you start a business so that you could be profitable? Today we are going to debunk 5 myths about scaling your business.
Most people would say that they started their business so that they could be profitable! They want to make money! But at the same time, they don’t want to be chained to their business doing the parts that make it feel like a drag.
But to be profitable, you need to be able to work on a profitable scale. Which, for most businesses, means scaling up.
Scaling your business can seem intimidating if you believe the common myths about it. To be honest, I have personally struggled with many of these in my own experience – it’s normal! But if I can overcome them, so can you.
Here are my top 5 myths about scaling your business debunked:
- You need a big, expensive team in order to grow.
In truth, you do not. Most business owners only really need part-time support, to begin with. They do not need to go out and hire ten full-time employees right off the bat. That would be expensive and daunting! There are other options! There’s always a way to get started with hiring that is sustainable.
We’ve had clients with large businesses who have a minimal employee staff and they contract for a lot of their work. Some clients have gotten creative with their hiring and even came up with creative solutions for their business. For example, one business created an internship for upcoming young professionals. It was a win-win for both the business and the person receiving the internship!
We have clients that have multi-million dollar businesses and have very small, contracted, productive teams. This obviously will not work in all situations, but many businesses can do this when they have the right systems and processes.
You can grow and scale with just a few of the right people. - You need to have a 7 figure business to think about scaling your business.
This is not the case. Consider this: You need to scale in order to get to the 7-figure business!
Men, you’re really good at starting a company and hiring really fast and building a team.. Women tend to start a company and choose to BE the team. This is not sustainable and we find this out very quickly!
Again, you can start small and go from there. Even when your enterprise is in its infancy, investing in some help will get you farther than you may realize.
The truth is that the faster you can hire, the faster you can grow.
- I need to sell a big-ticket item in order to scale.
Most businesses do not sell big-ticket items. And they can grow anyways. In fact, most businesses are a service model. And you can scale a service model business just as easily as you can scale a big-ticket business.
All businesses have the potential to scale. - I need to have a massive email list to scale
Email marketing has become a force to be reckoned with in the marketing industry. But too few business owners know that much about how it really works.
Consider this: I once heard someone say, “If you have 250 people on your list, you can grow a million-dollar business from that list.” 250 people. That is all! You do not need 10,000 names. Just 250 of the RIGHT ones.
Now to be clear, in this situation, he was referencing higher ticket items for a service-based industry, so these figures may not be exactly spot-on for your business. But the point he was making applies to all businesses.
The majority of businesses in the US are small businesses. A small business can usually thrive with a small client base. You do not need to serve all people – just the right ones for what you have to offer!
You don’t need as many people as you may think in order to create a large business.. - It’s going to be hard and I’ll need to work more hours
What may be the most common myth about scaling is that you’re going to be working 24/7. The idea is: I’m already working hard – I’m going to need to work harder.
Scaling, when done with the proper systems and delegation, in fact, does NOT cause you to need to work more hours! Quite the opposite! You can scale and find that you’ve bought yourself lots of time. One of our clients knocked 21 hours off of her week! She gained 84 hours a month to do what she does best in her business. Did her business grow? YES!
When you scale, part of doing it effectively is becoming good at delegating. What are you good at in your business? Do that – and ONLY that. You do not need to do more!
For example, many of my clients spend hours doing admin work. They hate it! They aren’t good at it! And they get sucked into it, thinking this is what it takes to run their business. And this is simply not true. Find someone to do this job so that you can focus on what you do best.
You, as the leader and CEO, are going to cause the business to grow more when you are doing what you do best.
- You need a big, expensive team in order to grow.
Which myth are you believing today? Which one do you need to change in order to scale your business?
