{"id":1906,"date":"2018-01-31T11:46:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T17:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/?p=1906"},"modified":"2020-10-05T15:39:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T20:39:54","slug":"scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Scale Your Business Without Sacrificing Quality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Is your business surpassing goals? Do you have a strong cash flow? Is your customer base healthy? Have you proved that your product will sell? These are just some of the factors to consider before deciding if it\u2019s the right time to scale your business.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Get to Know Your Customers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Some small business owners are so caught up in the day-to-day grind of running a business, they fail to look at it through the eyes of their customers.<\/p>\n<p>According to one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.home.barclays\/news\/2016\/04\/scale-up-UK.html\">report<\/a>, an entrepreneur aspiring to grow a company needs to \u201cdevelop a clear articulation of their company\u2019s competitive strength in the eyes of the customers, and how this is related to internal processes and knowledge.\u201d Research also suggests that some founders build a distorted self-perception based on their own definition of the quality of their interactions with their customers.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to understand what your customers\u2019 experiences are with your business. If you\u2019re looking to scale, you may want to create a detailed customer profile to understand who your customer currently is. Consider the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is your customer\u2019s age and demographic?<\/li>\n<li>Is your customer married or single?<\/li>\n<li>Is your customer a working professional?<\/li>\n<li>What income bracket does your customer fall into?<\/li>\n<li>Is your customer a millennial or a baby boomer?<\/li>\n<li>How does your customer benefit from your product\/service?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Gathering this type of data will aide your marketing efforts. Also, the more niche focused your small business is, the easier it is to reach your target market. While focusing on customer retention, you can also expand your customer base by incentivizing your customers for referrals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Remember, Scaling Is Different From Growing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s important to understand the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fundable.com\/blog\/post\/growth-vs-scaling\">difference<\/a> between <em>scaling<\/em> and <em>growing<\/em>. Many successful companies, Google, PayPal, Expedia and eBay for example, have created business models to scale their companies, not necessarily to grow them.<\/p>\n<p>Growing means you are adding resources at the same rate you are adding revenue. Professional services usually follow this model:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Gain a client.<\/li>\n<li>Hire more people to service the client.<\/li>\n<li>Add revenue at the same rate at which you\u2019ve added more cost.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Scaling is all about adding revenue at an exponential rate while adding resources at an incremental rate.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Add customers at a quick rate.<\/li>\n<li>Keep additional resources at a minimum to service your customers.<\/li>\n<li>Generate significantly higher revenue while keeping costs and resources minimal.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>A solid foundation with room to grow is what will help sustain your business. As your current customers see your business grow, their loyalty to your business will also increase.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Set Reasonable Expectations<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As demands for your business increase, you could fall short of those demands without a suitable system in place. You need to be able to scale your business without sacrificing the quality that made you successful in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/articles.bplans.com\/five-signs-that-its-time-to-scale-up-your-business\/\">Richard Branson<\/a> said, \u201cFocus on your passion, start small, dream big and plan ahead. Scale up only when you are ready \u2014 not just because opportunity knocks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Financing is often a necessary part of scaling your business. There are several options for business loans and funding:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/line-of-credit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Business lines of credit<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/business-credit-cards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Business credit cards<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/sba-loans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SBA loans<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/short-term-business-loans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Short-term loans<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/merchant-cash-advance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Merchant cash advances<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Regardless of how you decide to scale your business, the focus should remain on how you can balance growth while retaining your core values and customers. It all starts with a long-term plan to understand your customer base, set reasonable expectations, acquire financing as needed and plan for success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is your business surpassing goals? Do you have a strong cash flow? Is your customer base healthy? Have you proved &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[610],"tags":[302,301,151,242],"class_list":["post-1906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing-growth","tag-growing-business","tag-scaling-business","tag-small-business","tag-small-business-management"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Scale Your Business Without Sacrificing Quality - Headway Capital Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is it the right time to scale your small business? Here&#039;s the factors your should consider before moving forward and strategy for how to do it best.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Scale Your Business Without Sacrificing Quality - Headway Capital Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is it the right time to scale your small business? Here&#039;s the factors your should consider before moving forward and strategy for how to do it best.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Headway Capital Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-31T17:46:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-05T20:39:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/18-00025-05_USMB_HC-How-to-Scale-Your-Business-Without-Sacrificing-Quality-1a02.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"848\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"428\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth B. Jensen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth B. Jensen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Scale Your Business Without Sacrificing Quality - Headway Capital Blog","description":"Is it the right time to scale your small business? Here's the factors your should consider before moving forward and strategy for how to do it best.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Scale Your Business Without Sacrificing Quality - Headway Capital Blog","og_description":"Is it the right time to scale your small business? Here's the factors your should consider before moving forward and strategy for how to do it best.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/","og_site_name":"Headway Capital Blog","article_published_time":"2018-01-31T17:46:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-05T20:39:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":848,"height":428,"url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/18-00025-05_USMB_HC-How-to-Scale-Your-Business-Without-Sacrificing-Quality-1a02.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Elizabeth B. Jensen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elizabeth B. Jensen","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/"},"author":{"name":"Elizabeth B. Jensen","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/022bdbebc7c836766db229c0d1150fe9"},"headline":"How to Scale Your Business Without Sacrificing Quality","datePublished":"2018-01-31T17:46:34+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-05T20:39:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/"},"wordCount":592,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/18-00025-05_USMB_HC-How-to-Scale-Your-Business-Without-Sacrificing-Quality-1a02.png","keywords":["growing business","scaling business","Small business","small business management"],"articleSection":["Marketing and Growth"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/","name":"How to Scale Your Business Without Sacrificing Quality - Headway Capital Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/18-00025-05_USMB_HC-How-to-Scale-Your-Business-Without-Sacrificing-Quality-1a02.png","datePublished":"2018-01-31T17:46:34+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-05T20:39:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/022bdbebc7c836766db229c0d1150fe9"},"description":"Is it the right time to scale your small business? Here's the factors your should consider before moving forward and strategy for how to do it best.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/18-00025-05_USMB_HC-How-to-Scale-Your-Business-Without-Sacrificing-Quality-1a02.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/18-00025-05_USMB_HC-How-to-Scale-Your-Business-Without-Sacrificing-Quality-1a02.png","width":848,"height":428,"caption":"scaling small business"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/scale-business-without-sacrificing-quality\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Marketing and Growth","item":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/category\/marketing-growth\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How to Scale Your Business Without Sacrificing Quality"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/","name":"Headway Capital Blog","description":"Your source for the latest news, tools, tips and resources to help your small business succeed.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/022bdbebc7c836766db229c0d1150fe9","name":"Elizabeth B. Jensen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/elizabeth-b-jensen.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/elizabeth-b-jensen.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/elizabeth-b-jensen.jpg","caption":"Elizabeth B. Jensen"},"description":"Elizabeth B. Jensen is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and copywriter. She writes for Lendio about all things small business, and she was a featured writer and editor for the Inside Small Business newsletter for Hewlett-Packard. Her articles have also been published in numerous travel and visitor guides.","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth-jensenlendio-com\/"}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1906"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2805,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906\/revisions\/2805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}