There are certain things you may hear constantly as you scale your business. "Cash is king." "You need to find a niche." "Do you want a lifestyle business or a scalable business?" "The only thing that matters is if you're making money."
Intellectually, we may know these things are true. But there are also things we have to learn on our own—as painful and expensive as that can be.
In 2007, my business had revenues of $1.2 million and access to a $500,000 line of credit. I ran that credit line up, hired a bunch of people and increased our top line another $500,000. It also increased our bottom line another $500,000, and then some.
I had 35 people in a 5,000-square-foot office in the trendy River North neighborhood of Chicago. Things were rocking and rolling. We were doing business around the globe. We were winning business while the largest PR firms in the world were struggling.
But we also never made it to the black. I was more concerned about the top line and having lots of employees. And then the economy tanked. Clients put retainers on hold. And the bank called my line.
It was the scariest moment in my business life. I even cried when the banker called. I mean, sobbed. Uncontrollably. It was a wake-up call, and it forced me to change my outlook.
Create a Two-Page Business Plan
We had to start over, and scaling was going to be our biggest challenge. Scaling required a bold move, serious planning and implementation of a year-long training program for new employees. We got very focused and began to create our niche in software as a service.
The other thing we did is create a plan we could actually execute. This isn't a 20-page document that we create every year and then put in a drawer. On the contrary. It's a two-page document we created with the help of Traction: Get a Grip On Your Business. It's fluid and updated every week before our staff meeting.
On page 1, we have the following:
- Core values
- Our core focus, which includes purpose, mission and niche
- The 10-year target
- Our marketing strategy, which includes the target market, our three differentiators and our process
- The three-year picture, which includes revenue and profit goals, measurables and a picture of what success looks like
On page 2, we have three columns with the 2015 plan. It includes:
- Our revenue and profit goal, measurables and goals for the year
- Our quarterly big goals
- A list of issues or challenges that will prevent us from reaching our goals with priority on getting them cleaned up
We keep this in two tabs of an Excel spreadsheet. There is a third tab with our scorecard, which combines individual goals for each employee and our business goals.
Create a Scorecard to Scale Your Business
The scorecard runs three months at a time and is color-coded: red for not coming close to goal, yellow for midway there, and green for meeting it.
The spreadsheet has four columns: person responsible, the measurable, the annual goal and the weekly goal. Then it has the date of the staff meeting, where each box is color-coded.
Each employee is responsible for updating their section ahead of the staff meeting, and we review it as a team.
In the beginning, it was slow to adopt, but as soon as everyone—myself included—realized the entire team was going to see their progress, they amped up their game. Now it's a friendly competition to see who can get greens every week.
Go Forth and Prosper
And it works! We hit every Q1 goal, except one, and we missed that by only $22,000, which is pretty easy to make up in Q4 when organizations hire for the following year.
And, because we have a list of issues that are front and center and discussed at every staff meeting, we're prepared for things that could take us off plan.
Scale is coming. It's not easy. It certainly has been rough. But it's on its way, and we're ready!
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