HOW TO TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Published 30 July 2019

HOW DO YOU SCALE UP YOUR BUSINESS AND TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL?

A scale-up business is any firm that is looking to grow in terms of market access, revenues, and number of employees, adding value by identifying and realising new opportunities.

Scale-up businesses are the engine of growth for the UK economy, creating wealth, opportunities and employment in a competitive environment.

Organic versus inorganic growth
​Firms can scale up in one of two ways. They can focus on organic growth - growing gradually thorough increased sales and market share. Alternatively they can scale up through inorganic growth strategies such as through an acquisition or a merger with another business.

Commit to growth
Scaling up a business takes a huge amount of time and effort so you need to ensure that your management team is committed to growing the business. You and your team will need to create realistic growth targets and develop plans and concrete actions of how growth will be achieved.

Upskill your team
Your management team will have a given level of expertise. However, delivering a growth strategy may require an expanded skillset. Take the time to identify the skills required to realise your growth strategy. Do you have people with good management experience, an understanding of the relevant technology, good financial skills and a background in change management? If not, you will need to upskill your current team or hire in experienced professionals to help drive growth.

Collaborate
In order to scale up your business you will need to create partnerships with people and firms outside of your business. Consider your routes to market and identify potential service providers, sales channel partners, suppliers and key clients who you can work with in order to form alliances which will drive the growth of your business. 

If you are focused on expanding into new markets, you will need to create collaborative business relationships with sales partners and suppliers in those countries, and may need to create formal agreements with these new business partners.

CREATING AN EMPLOYER BRAND

The businesses that attract the best talent all have one thing in common - a great employer brand.

All businesses have an employer brand - it's what your employees, customers, suppliers, peers and potential employees say about your business. A strong employer brand can help your business to compete for the best talent and can even have a positive impact on your firm's overall brand reputation in the market. 

Define who you are first
Before you can begin to create your employer brand you need to decide what you want that brand to be. Start by considering what the most appealing things are about your firm. Why do good people want to work in your firm? What do you stand for and who are your customers? For example, do your employees get to work in an entrepreneurial environment, that encourages flexible working and allows them to work with international clients?

Identify your target market
What type of people do you want to hire into your business? Do you want to hire energetic, tech savvy millennials or solid, experienced, dependable generation X? If you’re trying to attract a completely new breed of employees (who are quite different to your current staff) then your actual company culture, vision and values may need some work - especially if they are at odds with the type of people that you are hoping to attract.

Build a strong company culture
You need to build your firm's culture around your company values and hire people who fit with those values. Encourage your staff to think outside the box, to try new things and to innovate. Engage your people in building a great place to work. Ask them for their ideas and empower them to implement those ideas.

Publicise your culture
If you create a firm and a culture that your staff are proud of, they will tell people about it. The more participation from your employees, the stronger your employer brand will be. You can help them to publicise your firm's culture by creating posts on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. If your staff are proud of the firm that they work for, they will like and share these posts.

Celebrate what makes your firm unique
Whether it’s a casual dress policy or office sporting events on a Friday, take time to have a bit of fun in your firm. Maybe you have the best people or you work as a team to help a local charity or community group. Whatever it is that brings your team together in a positive way and makes your company unique should be celebrated. The more you do so, the more engaged your people will be and the more they will tell everyone about the great firm that they work for.