INDEED, YOU CAN LEARN FROM SUCCESSFUL SCALE-UPS
As an entrepreneur, you have had quite a journey with some notable successes in your career. Your business is progressing at a good phase from the start and recently, things seem to take an important turn for the good. You believe that you have everything under control. But suddenly, you can see various factors complicating your business growth.
Are you stumped?
Well, welcome to the scale-up phase!
Successful scale-ups are companies that have disrupted the industries and revolutionized the patterns. They create a predictable stream of revenue and create solutions that fit the buyer’s persona. Many scale-ups record a swift growth due to the ingenuity of the products, transition into a hyper-growth company and become essential to the growth of the industry.
In fact, according to a report by Deloitte, scale-ups will be responsible for the creation of additional jobs between 45,000 to 150,000 in the UK alone by 2034 and contribute billions of dollars to the GDP.
In the times when 90% of the startups fail, scale-ups are those few businesses that have successfully fought against the odds and have managed to make a significant mark in the industry.
The success behind the top scale-ups in the world
Let’s face it. There is no one single formula for the success of any business. But, there is always a special mantra — a distinctive trait — in every successful scale-up that helps in inching closer to success. Scale-ups leverage this trait to market their product and strengthen the sales funnel.
Every scale-up has its own unique reasons that have made them indispensable. There are a few common denominators that helped these successful scale-ups to survive the initial struggles and transition into a hyper-growth company. These companies are able to create predictable revenue. They nail a niche, build a predictable pipeline and make sales scalable.
In this blog, we will see some scenarios where the scale-ups successfully moved past the challenges and built the business.
1. When there is an increase in demand
At the beginning as a startup, you will have a meagre number of employees wearing too many hats. Your marketing guy will be responsible for logistics and your main technical guy will double-up as your finance guy.
Of course, it’s understandable considering the limited budgets and the lean scope of trade. But as you progress, it is harder for the same batch of employees to handle more volume of work and still juggle various responsibilities.
Stifling the employees with too many duties will only reduce the level of their competency. You must when it’s time to draw the line.
The solution - Know when to restructure and create scalable sales
As a scale-up, you definitely need to restructure the organization when you transition from a startup. You should create different teams and delegate the responsibilities. You may also need to hire extra team members to manage the increasing workload and streamline operations for scalable sales. This way, you can manage the increase in demand and workload and make the most out of the sales.
This is exactly what Ecochain did. Ecochain is an environmental intelligence platform that helps organizations to get good returns on sustainable investments. Sounds like an amazing idea, right? Many companies thought so too. As a result, they got many clients in a short time and there was a good demand for their services.
This is when Ecochain realized the need for reorganizing their business to handle the increasing volume of the work. They restructured and created separated departments with streamlined processes. As a result, they were able to take in more clients and increase the efficiency of their services.
Key Takeaway: Whenever there is a huge demand that's out of your current capability, restructure the organization first. If you're still unable to handle the load, it's time to hire more talent.
Before you jump to the conclusion and hire new talent, see if you can work with the current employee strength with the addition of a few technological resources. Have you tried out any automation tools that support your employees to handle the workload? If not, invest in one that simplifies and streamlines your process.
The FaceValue Application is one of the top marketing and sales automation tools that makes your life so much easier! When you are struggling to handle the prospects, use the FaceValue app to load all the information into the CRM and brand details into the Brains. Now effortlessly manage them through automated communications and simplified sales pipeline!
2. When there is a valuable opportunity
When we look back at some top companies of today, we can observe that many have created a market space for themselves that didn’t even exist at their times. Think Uber, Doordash, Airbnb and many others. These are hyper-growth companies that surpassed the expectations and grew at a swift pace.
Can you see the common, underlying purpose of such companies?
They were able to predict and cater to an opportunity before people even realized it. And now, we have become so used to such services and products that we can no longer imagine living in a world without it!
The Solution - Know when it’s time to leverage current trends
There are a few trends that crop you at certain points of times. You see it in the newspapers and find many business people talking about it. You need to take advantage of such a situation and make the most of it.
In a study ‘Scale Up: The Experience Game’ by Deloitte, they compared such sudden outbursts of trends (waves) and the impact of it on the scale-ups, especially the unicorns. (The unicorns are a subset of scale-ups that are valued at $1 billion or more.)
It’s clear that 75% of the unicorns were impacted positively with the advent of such waves and made a clear impression on their business. These companies focussed on one particular niche, took advantage of that niche’s trends and registered a quick growth.
Physee is a typical example of it. Physee creates solar-powered smart windows that can regulate the climate of the place. There was an intrigue around the concept of solar-powered appliances around that time but only a few were able to manifest a working product.
Physee’s introduction of such sustainable living brought visionary ideas to reality. They patented their ‘PowerWindow’ and they received a great response. With their innovative ideas, they took advantage of the trend and have progressed a lot ever since. This is a great example of a company achieving hyper-growth by taking advantage of the trends.
Key Takeaway: Riding the wave is the golden ticket any business could ask for. Nail your niche, leverage the appropriate trends when it strikes and make the most out of it.
Launch marketing campaigns by highlighting the trend through various points of purchase like landing pages, social media, emails, online marketplace, online events, etc. from the FaceValue Application. Some trends are short lived and therefore, time is critical. So, quickly run smart marketing campaigns and monitor the response using FaceValue’s marketing automation tool.
3. When there is a need for innovation
You are probably running your business in the best way possible. You see that your performance is better than the competitors who are at the same level as you. But that shouldn’t stop you from innovating!
There is always some scope of innovation in any business and you should never stop searching for something better. The minute you feel satisfied and stop innovating will be the start of the downfall.
The Solution - Know that there is always a first
There is always room for improvement, some range of development, a space for innovation if you keep looking. Such innovations aren’t a shot in the dark. They are systematic, backed-up with proofs and can create predictable revenue for the company.
Transferwise did exactly that. Transferwise was started as a simple, money transfer startup started almost 10 years back in London. It went on to include more global currencies and is now used by many from all over the world.
As a money transfer service, it may look like Transferwise has done all that it can do. But, they were still looking for ways to better their services. Soon enough, they found one such alternative to further increase the efficiency of the money transfers. Transferwise became the first non-bank service provider to get admitted to the UK’s Faster Payment Systems. This means instant money transfers and reduced costs without the involvement of partnerships.
There is always a first to everything and it’s the task of every organization to keep looking for it. It can even be something small such as including a new marketing automation process, content strategy tools or procuring new software. Whatever it is, keep innovating and finding new ways to become better than what you currently do.
Key Takeaway: Don't ever think that you have done the maximum you can for your business. Keep looking for new opportunities and don’t stop while you’re at it!
The best way to keep becoming better at what you do and find new opportunities is to truly understand what your customers need. It’s a permanent, ongoing process that should always be a part of your usual routine. You can use FaceValue's KPI monitoring feature to easily track the buyer’s journey, understand the pain points and offer improved solutions that your customers will love.
Scale-ups thrive when they tap into a unique business opportunity, innovate constantly and know when it’s time to delegate and sit back. When you are building a company from the ground up, learning from the success stories of the scale-ups will help you to succeed at your goals too. Observe, learn and execute these key ideas when necessary and see the difference it makes.
