The #1 Question I Get Asked on Webinars is 'How do I scale my business in a growth period?' My answer is simple.

The simple, most accurate, and proven method to scale any business is CASH FLOW.

Cash flow creates the ability to scale through:

1. Increasing advertising that leads to sales
2. Develop new products that leads to sales
3. Pay for new business development that leads to new clients
4. Streamline operations for higher profit, thus higher cash flow
5. Invest in new partnerships that allow you to expand outside your normal business routine
6. Think about your business, try a new idea, fail and not freak out

In researching for this post on #LinkedIn, I Googled "how to scale my business." The point was to see what everyone was talking about, if I agreed and could pull together some wisdom from other, and how I could apply it to my own take on the question.

'How do I scale my business?' is the #1 question I get when doing a business make-over webinar.

Sure enough, Entrepreneur Magazine pops up in search at the top of the fold with 15 Ways to Scale Your Business. I love this magazine and generally find articles filled with little useable nuggets I can use day to day.

BUT THIS TIME I WAS SHOCKED AT WHAT I READ!!!!

I actually wonder how this article could be 15 Ways to Scale Your Business - and more so - how a magazine like #Entrepreneur would accept it as written. NOW! Before you click on the link above and go read it - finish this article first.

Scaling a #business is about cash flow, not a perfect P/L.

Scaling a business is about how much accessible cash you have in the bank, not how much content you put out in social media.

Scaling a business is about having enough cash in your business to take chances, invest, streamline, expand #advertising, hire the next level up, innovate, and secure time to think without worrying about making little mistakes. It is not about #blogs, #Quora, #Influencers, #Coupons, and #Contests as the Entrepreneur article suggests.

You cannot, especially in the short term, scale your business to any significant difference by letting social media, #PR, and content lead the way. And let's face it - when a business owner is looking to scale it is because they are so busy servicing the business they need to get bigger to honor the demand from their clients. Do these business owners really have the time to write content, be interviewed, manage influencers, sign-up for #HARO? The Entrepreneur article says that's exactly what you should do. I 500% disagree.

When asked on my Webinar last week, 'How do I scale my business when I am so busy running my business?', I would have been hung up on if my answer was any of the 15 suggestions in the above article. My answer?

Take 3 days off from your business (pretend you have a deadly flu and you cannot speak or type to the outside world) and create ATM machines within your business. ATM Machines within your business are areas that you can put money in one or twice a month and they spit money out weekly. While there are many ways to create ATM-like cash flow segments to your company the easiest one to talk about it positive-MER media.

If you sell a product, service, or advice you can create positive-MER media in #radio, #TV, #print, #Facebook, webinars, with endorsements, and other areas. This requires you rethinking how you price products/services, create splits in your product wheel, and generate new angles of approach to how people buy your product.

Imagine if every week you could spend $5,000 and bring in $6,500 - we call that a 1.3 positive-MER. In this scenario, you have money right away that you can use to hire an assistant so you can sell more during the week. Or how about $40,000 a month and bring in $60,000 a month for a 1.5 positive-MER. In this scenario, you can reinvest that $20K difference at a 1.5 and generate $90,000 (or $40K net) the following month. What can you scale with a new $40K a month in cash?

I challenge anyone looking scale to take 3 days off and sequester yourself with someone not inside your business to help you see how many ATM machines you can activate right away.

Happy scaling!

Charlie