Scaling and growth are two widely used terms in entrepreneurship. They both represent hot topics and stand for desirable business outcomes. However, there is a fundamental difference between scaling and growth. People frequently treat them as synonyms for expansion and prosperity. If a business is getting bigger and making more profit, many tend to attribute it to growth and scaling, as the two are mistaken for interchangeable words.
But what these terms actually are, and how should we define them? What is scaling, and how is it different from growth? Let’s look into the facts and discover the essential differences between the two.
Business Scaling vs. Business Growth
Scaling your business successfully is a catchphrase we often hear, principally when we speak of small businesses and startups. Still, most business owners toss the term around quite loosely. The false interchangeability between these terms makes knowing the difference between scaling and growth even more significant.
What Does Scaling Mean?
Scaling, much like growth, does imply development, increase in profits, and company’s expansion. However, it simultaneously stabilizes the costs and balances the rates. Here is what scaling actually means.
Understanding the difference between growth and scaling is crucial to obtain the right results. When your firm is progressing, you’re boosting revenue, market share, and having more staff, in-house, or through an outsourcing partnership. In the meantime, your costs tend to grow at the same pace. And the increased expenses are not the sole growing pain your organization would experience. You’d encounter a risen stress level, various impediments, and struggles, which might eventually increase the churn rate.
How is scaling different from growth? To scale a business signifies to grow your revenue faster than your expenses rise. Scaling beats the clock and sets the tempo that suits your company, advancement, and employee satisfaction. It drives an improved work-life balance.
In short – What is scalability in business? Scalability represents a characteristic of a business that allows it to function correctly and deliver optimal results under increased amounts of work. The capability to maximize profits while maintaining the same efforts is the most important difference between scaling and growth.
Stages Companies Go Through as They Scale
Benefits of scaling a business could be enormous. Which is why it is vital to follow the necessary steps and run your business adequately. There usually are four main stages in every company’s life cycle. Each stage brings unique challenges. The path toward the final stage should depict the true definition and importance of scaling.
The stages companies go through when growing and scaling include:
- Start-up
- Grow up
- Scale-up
- Dominating the industry
Start-up
At this stage, your company most likely has 1-5 employees. Your focus should be product development and building an adequate business model. You should be establishing priorities and getting to know the market needs.
Grow Up
At this point, companies usually have 6-15 employees. Your success now depends on your teams’ performance. Hiring and sales are your key priorities. In this stage, you can start to rely on BPO companies to increase your profits and boost your outcomes. External help starts to come in handy. Outsourcing might be the key to successful scaling and reaching the next stage. Third-party providers often represent the answer to the primary question – How do you scale a small business?
Scale-up
Your company now has somewhere between 15 and 200 employees. You are growing and scaling your business. Your duty is to define and retain your place in the market. This is the point when it’s essential to differentiate your brand from the competitors.
You are learning how to scale growth by optimizing internal processes, infrastructure, and people. Once again, you can scale with some help from the outside. Outsourcing some parts of the workload can enable proper scaling.
Dominate the Industry
You’re now aiming to win and conquer the market. Industry domination signifies that you have learned how to scale your business and its growth. Now, you must retain a fresh approach and refine everything from time to time. Staying relevant and up to date is tricky. However, it is manageable.
How to Scale a Business?
Scaling a business successfully involves taking various necessary steps. However, the actions you take are not the only thing you should learn about. There is a needed shift in mindset you must focus on to succeed and scale your growth.
What does it mean to scale a business? This is the essential question to answer to clear the doubts. Scalability is both a characteristic and an ability to grow without feeling growing pains. Scaling is a long-term process.
How do you scale up a business? You can achieve your goals by researching, learning, and setting your aims properly throughout each stage. Nothing happens overnight; it takes time, planning, patience, and analysis.
5 Tips to Scale Your Business
As we mentioned, a shift in mindset and attitude is the initial step you must take toward your sustainable growth and scalability. According to Forbes, here’s how you overcome the struggles and turn the difference between scaling and growth into your advantage.
- Think big, pay attention to strategic planning & start acting accordingly
- Boost your online presence and enhance your public image through a personalized website and social media channels
- Focus on core areas, but don’t lose the seemingly small details out of your sight
- Build firm and lasting connections with potential partners, clients, customers, or users
- Find an adequate way to evaluate and extend your finances
This single viewpoint on how to scale your business is certainly helpful. Still, you must read, search, prioritize, and learn more. Always keep an open mind and look for ways to improve your business.
8 Steps to Scale up Your Business Successfully
Some of the actionable tips and steps toward the aspired scalability include:
- Keeping your customers happy (and loyal)
- Keeping your employees engaged and satisfied (and lowering employee churn rate by doing so)
- Staying devoted and involved throughout every stage and process (as much as possible)
- Avoiding shortcuts and scaling slowly
- Seeking external help (consulting, outsourcing, leveraging the knowledge in several ways)
- Learning when to say “no”
- Making data-driven decisions
Scale Your Business with Outsourcing
Every business owner who is starting a company asks the same question: How to scale a small business successfully? Typical growing pains introduce all kinds of barriers and restrictions. Cash flow can represent an issue, and so does the lack of time to focus on long-term goals. Scaling a small business is challenging, and outsourcing services are often the best way to manage it.
Qualified external teams and reliable BPO companies help businesses reduce the main difficulties. Companies delegate specific tasks and job functions to third-party providers, such as bookkeeping and finances, content marketing, or customer support outsourcing.
Other roles and responsibilities you should outsource to scale your business include:
- Conversion strategies experts and sales outsourcing
- Development and design
- Research and data specialists
Collaborating with a skilled and trustworthy third-party company eliminates the most time-consuming tasks from the internal team. Find the right outsourcing company and scale your growth smoothly.
Advantages of Outsourcing for Small Businesses
This widespread business practice affects growth and scaling positively. There are many areas companies should pay attention to, which is why qualified external teams bring numerous perks.
The benefits of outsourcing for small businesses include:
- New marketing opportunities
- Better customer experience
- More time to focus on core areas
- Reduced costs
- Simplified hiring
- Immediate access to new skills and knowledge
- Increased profits
- More efficiency
- Shorter time to market
- Lower churn rate
Conclusion: Scale Your Growth
Each strategy should start with emphasizing the uniqueness your business brings to the market. The tactics to differentiate your brand from the competition, grow, scale, and establish industry dominance can’t happen without focusing on the internal processes and teams.
The people you hire, whether in-house or through a BPO company, are your strongest brand ambassadors and active participants in your business growth.
Once you grasp the difference between scaling and growth, make sure not to neglect the significance of staff and their knowledge, skills, leadership abilities, management competences, and personality traits.
And, if you need an established, organized, and reliable team to scale your growth, let’s chat.
