3 Critical Mistakes to Avoid when Scaling Up your Business

PRM_diagrams_02-12-16

Scaling up is one of the sure-shot ways for businesses to increase their profits. When done right, it can turn out to be a massive boost to your business and help you attain great heights. Poor evaluation, lack of robust resource management and inability to keep up with the growing market trends can, however, turn out to be a death blow while scaling up. It is important to stay aware of the common mistakes businesses make when they scale up and expand their operations such as when it comes to leveraging outsourcing partners with things like managed IT services. To help you steer clear of common pitfalls of scaling up, we’ve put together a list of 3 critical mistakes to avoid when scaling up your business. Read on.

1. Failing to Identify Core Competencies of your Business

Every business needs a clearly defined business plan detailing the core products, ideal customers and marketing channels before scaling up. Studies have revealed that more than 70% of startups and businesses fail during scaling up. Before you jump the wagon and begin scaling up, evaluate your minimum viable product, check whether you’ve achieved a product-market fit, identify your primary customers and examine if you have enough funding to support your efforts.

2. Going Overboard in a Few Important Aspects

Hiring, spending and product development are three key areas where most businesses tend to go overboard and exhaust their financial resources. It is imperative that you show restraint when it comes to the aforementioned areas for a smooth transition and a successful scale-up. Stay lean and do not hire too many managers or specialists. Avoid overindulging on unnecessary aspects such as office spaces, perks, and allowances; when scaling up, direct a sizeable chunk of your funding towards growing your business alone. Also, be wary of adding too many features to your product and overspending on the product development front as well.

3. Not Outsourcing or Automating Specialized, Labor-Intensive, & Non-Core Tasks

Most labor-intensive tasks such as IT resource management, payroll, learning management and marketing can overwhelm your organization and divert your attention from the core competency of your business. It is wise to focus on what your business can do best and outsource the rest to a reliable service provider. IT services such as cloud infrastructure, server management, web portal management, operating system monitoring, and application performance management are time and resource-intensive. In such a case, outsourcing them to reliable IT managed services providers can help you focus on your core business offerings and scale-up effectively.

Wrap Up

For a successful scale-up of your business, focus on staying lean, agile and quick to adopting market trends. Trying to perform all tasks in-house will overwhelm your business and divert its focus from the core competencies. For a successful and hassle-free scale-up, rely on a trusted managed IT services provider with a demonstrated history of customer satisfaction and innovation. Be meticulous and focus on scaling up quickly by outsourcing any labor-intensive task that isn’t your core competency. This way, you can stay assured that your business is on a steady path towards scaling up successfully.