Growth and scale are not the same
I had a client call last week. I work with them as a fractional CMO/COO, most of my job is to help them grow, but I also help with operations.
They have a nice runway, good funding, and a boring but high-growth niche in the B2B tech industry.
The topic was to discuss basic things: corporate identity and marketing operations because that was on my plate. Yet, we jumped out often during the call to talk about new avenues for growth ("Let's start a podcast!", "We need to be on that event").
I had to stop and highlight to the CEO that growth and scaling differ. We can only grow with scalable foundations.
So today, this topic serves as a reminder for this edition of Leadership Anywhere.
What is growth?
Growth, at least to me, is a super simple thing.
You invest into X activity, and based on the volume of your investment and the time, you will get out 5-10X ROI on said activity.
In marketing terms, if you have a SaaS in the customer service segment, your target audience is people in the customer service industry.
The people who will sign up for your SaaS might not be the people you talk to directly, as B2B tool decisions come from (in this case) either the CTO or the CS leader.
Yet, you still need to talk to customer service professionals, who will recommend the tool to decision-makers.
So maybe, starting a podcast or a newsletter would be a great way to grow your user base.
You invest tools, resources, and time, and off you go. You have a podcast. With time and proper promo, you will have an audience around it. With even more time, it will generate leads for you, directly or indirectly.
That's growth. Invest in something that would serve you in moving forward. Get ROI from the investment based on your time, resources, and expertise.
It has nothing to do with scaling.
So what is scaling?
You can scale up something if you repeat your actions more efficiently.
Scaling is repetition on a scale. Scaling is maxing out a current state of efficiency and adding improvement to create a new state and max that out again, and again, and again.
Using the podcast example as a vehicle for growth. How can you scale that?
By creating an efficient process of episode production. The less time and resources it takes to produce a show with high-quality standards, the more efficient you are.
Once you are efficient enough with production, you can add more features to the show. Share it on new channels, create new promo materials, amp up guest prospecting, you name it. That IS scaling.
I have a show, by the way. Allow me to brag about it: it takes 2hrs to produce one episode from recording to publishing. Yes, 2hrs, from which recording is usually 1hr. The process is THAT efficient. I use no help, btw, other than AI.
So how can you scale an existing business?
There are five ways you scale your company.
These ready-to-go methods are still quite generic, so they could be applied in almost any tech-related industry.
If you need help finding YOUR way with scaling, hit reply.
1 - SOPs & documentation.
The reason why I, and many other remote-first consultants, talk about documentation is not because we are addicted to writing.
Well, we are (at least I am), but that's not the real reason.
Documentation helps you track what you do daily. It also allows you to create templates about what you do more than once.
I create a template on literally anything that I do more than once. Who knows, I might need it later, give it to a VA, replicate, boom, no need to worry about doing that again.
If you have templates, SOPs, whatever you call them, they will help you streamline operations.
Better operations = better growth.
2 - Cut the office.
Pick up your hatchet in a growth phase or before starting up. Hold it tight and roam out.
Kill anything that a) holds you back on scaling up financially and b) occupies your time and energy with distraction.
The office should come first if you have any. You don't need it.
Going remote-first is a lifestyle choice for individuals. But it is a business decision for organizations. You will save an INSANE amount of cash by ditching the office rent.
You are not a big company tied to billion-years-long leases. Feel free to cut it and smile up with more cash in the bank.
Second, is your tool stack. As a startup, you've probably invested in 100+ tools to experiment and test things—time to stop that. Rely on your expert team to decide what tools to keep.
Keep only 10% of the total tools. Trust me. It is a good %, works almost all the time. It's usually my first task as a COO for others:
Collect all the tools we have subscriptions for
Put them in a sheet with $ and why we have them
Issue kill order on 90% of them
I just saved thousands of $ for the CEO. They didn't even use most tools and forgot to check their cards.
Better budget = better growth.
3 - Cut your staff.
Yep, sorry, but yeah. You need to start firing people. It's one of the best ways to scale.
Ok, but why and when.
Startups tend to hire amazing generalists. They are brilliant people who can wear many hats. Or, they have too many low-skilled low-paid people on the payroll.
Either way, there is a point when you need to grow up in terms of team structure as well.
The more you specialize, the better you serve your customers. The more specialists you have on your team, the more focus they have, and the more efficient they are.
So you need to replace generalists and the army of VAs with specialists.
That includes letting people go, hiring new people, or transferring your generalists into specialist roles.
Better teams = better growth.
4 - Go minimal.
Simple things are easier to scale. Sold 100 simple burgers? Great, put cheese in the burger. Now you have two offers. Simple.
The same is true for any business.
As a founder/CEO, you have to freakin' stop jumping on the next shiny thing. No, you don't want to start a podcast without figuring out your corporate identity first, your company's mission or you have operational insanity in your backyard.
Fix foundations first. Stay lean and minimal. Minimize distractions. Keep and preserve your focus relentlessly.
Minimalist business = better focus = better growth.
5 - Go modular.
I've been a prominent advocate of modular company structure because it works.
In essence: it relies heavily on a core full-time team combined with extensive use of fractional part-timers, service providers, consultants, and agencies.
It is flexible. Scale up if things work out, scale down if things don't.
The truth is, scaling is hard. Things broke, even with the best intentions. Markets are sloppy, the roads are bumpy, and you can crash even with the most precautions.
So flexibility is a golden key to success.
More flexibility = better growth.
So to recap:
Invest time in standardizing your work. Repeatable processes will give you the ability to scale.
Trim the fat and cut down costs on office and tools. A healthy budget gives you the ability to plan.
Switch from generalist to specialized staff. Experts bring you more value and the ability to use your momentum.
Keep things minimal, as the simpler your operation, the easiest it is to change. Focus brings you time to make better decisions.
Keep things modular, as flexibility is the ultimate weather-proof structure. The more flexible you are, the faster you adapt to changes.
As you can see, scale is essential for growth. But most people only want to grow without investing in scalable structures.
All of them will fail, or it will take much-much more time and capital to burn to succeed.
Not all of us have the luxury of that.
Peter
