One of the questions that business coaches help established small-business owners, founders, and family business owners answer is the “How Do I Grow X?” query. X is usually “my business” or “sales.” Seldom is it my operations, my cash, my team, or myself. When a small business is stuck for too long on its current plateau of no growth, which every organization spends time on – and more than once – throughout the life of the business, the actual question that needs to be asked is, “What do we need to do differently?” This specific open-ended question purposely uses the pronoun “we” instead of “I.”
What is clear is that the day-to-day will be different to scale up, which all small-business owners who have hired and closed sales certainly know. What’s not so clear is that growth can absolutely be “too fast”. In fact, when we hear those stats about businesses closing due to lack of cash, it is often not for lack of customers, but due to lack of upscaling skills.
To answer the “How do I upscale?” question, let’s start with Grow-Exit-Other.
“Other” must be addressed first. It is all the stuff going on in your life outside the business. Answer this: “Do I have the attention right now to be my business’s strategic and visionary CEO?” More on this later.
“Exit” is often not at all what it sounds like. It all comes down to the opportunities. Are there opportunities to sell, acquire, merge, or form a joint venture? If “Well, how would I know?” pops up, then a professional network strength check is in order. “Exit” opportunities are often discovered in conversations. “What is my daily conversation schedule like?” is the right “Exit” question.
The first “Grow” question is “Should we grow?” Next is “If we can and should, what do we need to grow, and can we obtain what we need profitably?” Once the Grow-Exit-Other decision has been made with your team, make sure they are clear on what is in it for customers and what is in it for them.
Now we are ready to answer the “How” questions of upscaling!
Operations: “How can we automate what we are doing manually?” to free up the team to work on tasks that require humans and human interaction. Can AI assist?
Organisational development: “How do I know team members have the skills to upscale?” to honour our culture and move it forward.
Sales/marketing/business development: “How are processes in place from lead generation to post-sale customer care?”
Financing: “How do we have the cash to upscale?” in order to work with financing partners who can help determine extra cash needed to buy additional short-term assets, incentivize current team members, and establish operational systems.
Executive leadership development: “How am I a participating member of industry associations, executive education cohorts, my local community, and executive peer groups?” to work with a business coach and leverage peers, industry leaders, and community leaders to lead my organisation’s growth. It does not have to be lonely at the top, and it never should be. Without peer resources, along with your trusted advisors and coaches, the growth times will be more difficult in the struggle of growing into a larger organization’s strategic and visionary CEO.
This growing small business will be a new organisation to the next growth plateau. Would you hire you to be its CEO?
