There are many reasons to scale your business to new markets or locations.
Protect your market hold (current market)
Advance into new markets
Increase impact of your why/mission
Provide more growth opportunity for your staff,
Exponential growth of your business results
It’s important to note that when you scale, not only will the things you are doing well scale, but so will you problems challenges and issues.
There is a common assumption that more locations means more money…..that’s a very not nuanced way of looking at it. More money ... but maybe not? Can you make incremental improvements in you’re existing location(s) that would give you growth or better margins? With more locations also comes more expenses and overhead. So that math is not always as simple as two locations = current results x2.
So, what ab0ut the reasons not to scale?
You are already tired and not feeling it
Because you see everyone else doing it
You don’t feel prepared or know where to start
Cash flow challenges
Culture not ready
Don’t scale to a new market if your current market is not protected
Scaling is hard. Make sure you are doing it for the right reasons personally, and strategically
The No Bullsh*t Scaling Checklist
If you aren't doing the below well, you probably shouldn't scale. The bad will scale with you, and bigger problems are harder and more costly to solve for. So solve them now, not later. Be very honest with yourself when reviewing this checklist and comparing against your business. Watch out for recency and confirmation bias.
1- Your culture is strong. Your values are integrated and operationalized into your business. Your WHY is evident and thriving
Key Indicators of Success:
Top performing talent are attracted and retained
Employee complaints and HR issues are minimal
People know how their work connects to the values and mission
Customers resonate with your values and purpose
2- You have best practice HR in place and your people operations are thriving
Key Indicators of Success:
Low Employee Churn and time to recruit is low
HR is trusted and balances the needs of the business with the needs of the people
Performance is managed well — Performance issues are handled equitably and swiftly, team and individual performance continually improves
3- You have loyal customers, and you know why
Key Indicators of Success:
You regularly survey and interview customer groups and know what they want and need
Your customer service metrics (Yelp, Google, NPS etc) are all high
Customer Churn is low/Retention is high
4- You have sales processes that work and can be tracked, scaled and replicated
Key Indicators of Success:
You have measurable sales funnels and are meeting or exceeding your revenue targets and you know why/how
Your sales successes are documented and ready to be scaled
5- You have ongoing strategic planning that aligns resources and mitigates business risk. And you are consistently executing on that plan with successful results.
Key Indicators of Success:
Your Objectives, goals and metrics are at or above 75% achievement quarter over quarter
Your teams and individuals at all levels know what the most important priorities are and their role in achieving them
6- Your cashflows are positive, predictable and de-risked
Key Indicators of Success:
Consistency quarter over quarter for trailing 12 months
You have good visibility into upcoming 24 months of cash needs
Don’t get ahead of yourself. Take an honest look at this checklist. Are you ready to scale? If not your energy is almost certainly better spent working on your existing location(s). Your results from scaling can be materially better and easier to achieve if you make sure you have the basics down first.