Think You're Ready To Scale Your Creator Business? Read This First.

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When I started tutoring students for their law-school entrance exams, my advertising and marketing strategy was just me and my rollerblades. I’d wheel around campus putting up posters advertising my services until I had so many clients I just couldn’t keep up.

So I hired someone else to do the rollerblading, which freed me up to build a website and create online courses. Eventually, I stopped doing in-person classes and one-on-one tutoring and went online with a course that allowed me to earn more and have a bigger impact by reaching students worldwide.

As more and more purpose-driven creator educators (the class of creators producing content designed to share knowledge or drive impact) join an exploding creator economy, one of the biggest questions they face is when – or if – to take their business to scale. With more than 200 million estimated creators in the global community, it’s an important question. I know firsthand the thrills and challenges of transforming a side hustle into a thriving business.

Here are three tips based on my experience and interactions with thousands of creator educators wrestling with the joys and challenges of growing their creator businesses.

Stop waiting for the perfect moment

Spoiler: it doesn’t exist.

Not everybody needs to scale to succeed, but if you want to grow your creator business, understand that conditions will never be perfect for doing so – nor do you need them to be. Every entrepreneur faces a tremendous learning curve no matter how much they prepare.?

Recently, I looked at a chart showing the product-market fit journey for dozens of successful companies. If it took companies like Uber and Airbnb a year or more to find their groove, creators shouldn’t expect to design a flawless rollout. Commit to progress, not perfection. Become a hoarder of ideas and best practices. I’m a big fan of The Leap as a resource (full disclosure I’m affiliated).?

If you’re sure you want to scale and are prepared to devote the mental, emotional and financial resources to be successful, you’re ready to take some additional steps.

Get to know your customer (even more)

Any successful business has a deep understanding of its ideal customer. If you’re thinking of scaling, this insight can guide you to build your business on an authentic foundation of mutual benefit. Both you and your customers win.

“Know your customer” has always been good business practice, but it’s table stakes in today’s diverse consumer marketplace. Seventy-one percent of today’s consumers expect personalized interactions from the companies they do business with, according to researchers at McKinsey. Companies that lead in personalization generate 40 percent more revenue than their peers.?

But it takes a lot of legwork to offer the right person the right experience at the right time. Many businesses do this through automation and software, but I believe you should start small and personal.?

There’s a common misperception that to build a big or successful business, everything needs to be scalable — meaning you can do it repeatedly, rapidly and at low cost or personal effort. Don’t be afraid to do non-scalable things, especially if it means learning more from your customers and potential customers. Build an online community and experiment with non-scalable products and services, quickly iterating to best meet your community’s needs. That might mean 1:1 coaching calls or calling each new customer to discover their hopes and fears and why they came to you to glean deep customer insights. If you’re not afraid to ask, your loyal followers will give you the roadmap to building new products and services that can best help them and grow your business.

For example, you might parlay the common problems you’ve solved for 1:1 coaching clients into content for an online course or ebook. Or, you could create a premium newsletter focusing on issues raised in community chats. This move to diversification maps trends we already see in the creator economy. Our internal data show that over 80% of top educational creators offer multiple services and products. Moving forward, that number will only grow.

Learn the A, B, Cs of business

You don’t need a business degree to scale your creator business, but you do need a solid understanding of the basics. This includes legal requirements, marketing fundamentals and financial essentials like return on investment and customer acquisition costs.

But do not let this stop you from starting! Starting imperfectly is always better than waiting to do it perfectly. You can pick up knowledge along the way in your lifelong journey of learning and improving.?

Here again, just-in-time learning is your most important ally. Don’t wait until you’re an expert in any of these principles; instead, commit to ongoing purpose-led learning and build the structure of your business as you grow.

That said, business acumen will be more important during certain milestones as you scale – such as when you hire your first employee, look for funding or consider an exit. Yes, exit: The creator economy’s growth hasn’t escaped venture capitalists' attention, with VCs pumping an estimated $1 billion yearly into creator-led businesses.?

It might be worth creating a simple business plan to give yourself a rough idea of where you’re going. This needn’t sideline your growth trajectory. Researchers say there are real benefits to writing your plan as you’re talking with customers and getting products ready for market. In some cases, this co-creation increased startups’ viability by 27%.

Just remember the much more important stat — 100% of businesses that don’t start will fail. So if you find yourself spending more time writing plans than getting out there and building something — stop with the planning.?

Success takes many different forms. Not every creator will want to – or need to – scale. But as more creators grow their thriving solo operations into complex businesses, these principles will help them decide when and how to take the plunge. Success is not about waiting for perfection. It’s about going in with open eyes and 100% commitment to serving customers and learning as you go.

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear your perspective in the comments below. For more insights on taking your business and career to the next level, be sure to subscribe to?The Way We Work ?to have this delivered each month to your inbox.