Few Tips on Scaling up a Start-Up
Over the last few days, I am seeing a welcome change in LinkedIn. On an average at least 7–10 new job posts coming daily in my feeds. And when I further dig in, I see that from well-funded startup to well established MNC almost everyone has started posting new openings in their career site. Thank God. Amidst multiple negatives, this is a ray of hope. But, thinking about hiring, while scaling up organizations is quite easy for a big MNC, for a start up or small companies, its bit of a challenging task. Rapid growth of a startup is very heartwarming. However, it can be a challenge in the time of transition. If you want to expand your organization, you need to grow the internal team to add the capacity and skills that are relevant to scale. Having the right number of employees is essential in expansion as it goes smoothly. The biggest challenge your organization may face is recruiting and retaining the right people to work.
Typically, the success of every business boils down to time and experience. Fortunately, certain factors play a significant role in having your start up scale up. I get into a very intense discussion with one of my friends who also owns a start up. We spent close to three hours to jot down the points that essentially one can follow. Excerpts from that discussion😊 Read on
1. What is the plan?
For a successful start up, you are required to have new or alternative methods., Plan A, Plan B or Plan Z whatever way you want to term them. The first thing to do is to identify all the barriers and plan how to overcome them. Having plans in advance makes it easier for you to implement new operations as well as maintain quality performance as you scale up. The plan will also minimize vulnerable risks and losses.
2. Be Customer Obsessed
If you have sales plan to increase your customer base, then you should also have a plan ready to scale up your engineering division or support division. Your customers play a vital role in determining your business success. Serve them with undisturbed quality. Ensure you anticipate their needs at each given process. They might eventually become your most tremendous brand ambassadors and maximize your profits. Without engineering support, sales team cant fulfil their promises. At the same time. So plan in and around customers and see where you need to invest more money for more people.
3. Trust data than speculations
Its ok to drive your organization based on market speculation, but too much reliance on that can cause more harm than good. A comprehensive understanding of big data can help you to avoid losses and make better decisions for your organization’s scaling. In short, analyze large and varied amounts of market patterns in great detail to expose specific information. The data include customer preferences, market trends, and unknown correlations.
4. Time is wealth
When expanding your startup, ensure all your activities for scaling are time-bound. Make use of the time management tools and strategies to get the best out of the time you have. This enables your team to remain efficient throughout the scaling process. Hence, they can accommodate deviations in schedules and tasks.
5. Hire Skilled Resources
An excellent performance from the team is a reflection of its leadership. Any growth in production and operations will require an additional employee at one point. During this time, you will want to hire dependable, skilled leaders who have your vision at heart. Another tip hire people you can trust to live up their responsibilities. This will, in return, help you in times of business crisis and change where you can count on them.
To wrap it up, for a successful startup, scaling operations is inevitable. It would be best if you also made risky decisions for your organization’s survival and growth. Take advantage of the emerging technologies that help in decision making. Your organization will scale up as you grow. Good luck my dear Entrepreneurs. More power to you all.
