What does scaling ACTUALLY mean?

The term gets used a lot, but when most are using it in the online business world, they’re actually referring to the growth stage, rather than scale-up.?

The dictionary definition of scaling is: to increase the size, amount, or importance of something, usually an organisation or process?

Or simply: make it greater in size, amount, or extent than it used to be.

Okay good, we’ve got that.

But isn’t that just ‘growth’?

Well let’s look at growth vs scaling:

Generally growth in business is about adding new resources and increasing revenue as a result. So for us in this online bubble, it’s about adding a new service or products, or team members, or technology or marketing.

Scaling is about increasing revenue without having to substantially increase your resources or costs. It means offering what you have to more people, often limitless people. Which is why we need to get through the growth bit first, test it, validate it, get happy with it, before we scale the thing.

Because if you scale something you’re not happy with, well you have a monster on your hands and an unhappy life.

This is a common mistake made by so many and why we see them exiting the industry.

Not everyone wants to scale and that’s okay.

Growth is good. Creating a business that gives you the salary you want to have the life you dream of is a bloody good achievement.?

But for those that do want to scale up, what does it actually take??

Because there are many interpretations of ‘scaling’ in the online business space.?

Some focus primarily on more sales, some on team, some on systems, some on offers.

From years of research and experience in this area, my focus has been on understanding all elements needed to scale simply and their relationship with each other. From this I created a scaling journey that has eight levers that work together seamlessly, so that you can scale, without having to add more resources.?

If they don’t work together seamlessly, you get a business made up of mismatched pieces, cobbled together from different coaches and courses.?

Bit like an old banger of a car with various parts meant to work together, but it never quite runs right and is always breaking down.?

You don’t want an old banger.

You want the beautifully engineered McLaren or Tesla or Jag or Merc [add your car of choice here - mines a Mini Countryman, she’s never broken down once in all the years I’ve had her], with all parts working together as intended, creating a smooth ride that gets you to your destination faster - yes -?but in a far more chilled, luxurious, enjoyable way.

These eight levers create inevitable success foundations? that support you as you scale a soul aligned business, instead of a monster of a business that steals your time, energy and will to live.

Sidenote: this is why you see so many big names go through a sticky patch and things go wrong. Either the model or offer wasn’t built to scare, or the delivery system wasn’t optimised to deliver at scale, or the marketing wasn’t bringing in the right people, or the back-end operations wasn’t fit to handle more clients. If one thing breaks, it all breaks.?

It’s a common issue in our world.?

Back to those levers.?

Lever One: Scalable model?

Although most business models can be designed to scale (yes even 1:1), not all business models are actually built for scale within a business. This creates a heavy, clunky business that doesn’t work. So when you try to scale, it breaks, creating a sea of dissatisfied clients - and refund requests - in your wake. It’s also about getting clear on your own vision and exit strategy, and building for that.

Lever Two: Scalable offers

Once you’re clear on your model, creating the right offers for you and your audience and designing them to scale (now or later) saves so much time, effort and energy later. This is about getting clear on the outcome and transformation, creating something your soul fit client lusts after and will do for years to come, understanding the buying journey, understanding the offer models and what works best for you and what will work best at scale.?

Lever Three: Scalable marketing?

Creating a simple, repeatable evergreen marketing system that can run without you is key to scaling. If your marketing relies on you showing up every single day, you’ve got a one way ticket to burnout. I’ve been using the same system for six years and it’s stood the test of time, flexing with the trends. In fact it’s what I teach my students in my online business coach certification. It’s also what kept bringing in leads, nurturing and selling to them while I took a month off in January.?

Lever Four: Scalable sales

Creating a simple selling system that captures all leads is the perfect accompaniment to your scalable marketing system. But it has to be built to scale, which means things like discovery calls with you won’t work. Coming up with a system that can connect with leads daily in a non sleazy way that aligns with your brand and values is one of the hardest elements of this whole scaling system. But once you crack it, growth is fast.?

Lever Five: Scalable delivery

This is the one most get wrong. They focus on the offer, marketing and sales as they have their eye on the revenue prize. And when it works, they don’t have the delivery system in place to deliver what they promised at scale. Leading to complaints, refund requests and legal action. This is why I encourage clients to start small, set scaling foundations from the get go, and test them before a big growth spurt.

Lever Six: Scalable operations

Arguably the one that brings so many to a crashing halt. Operations encompasses team and systems … the whole back-end support structure [and some front end if you’re running a many to many model]. Most overlook it as nobody can see it out in shiny marketing land, so it’s not as marketable as the other levers. But man, this is the one that creates havoc when not done right. Getting the right systems in place early, and hiring the right team is ESSENTIAL to scaling, before you even think about marketing and selling … because if the foundation isn’t there to hold more people, it all falls down. In our company we run a many to many model, with a core team behind the scenes [our engine room if you will] and a coach team supporting our clients so it doesn’t all depend on me. THIS was our game changer in 2021.

Lever Seven: Scalable identity

Establishing credibility and authority as you scale [whether you’re a personal brand or not] is key to your brand scalability. So getting clear on what that identity is, your values, your mission, your legacy, is key. This is you flag in the sand, and once you land on it, it?needs to be like the words in a stick of rock, running through all you do so you become known as the authority for your thing. When this happens, expert gigs come easily and these are key in creating a recognised, scalable brand.

Lever Eight: Scalable capacity

I’ve left this until last as it underpins IT ALL. Your capacity to scale, safely, is essential. If you don’t feel safe to receive more, to face the inevitable attack and backlash from being in the public eye, to hold space for hundreds and thousands of clients and customers, to lead a team, to lead yourself … well, it won’t happen. YOU will stop it, no matter if you have all seven levers pulled and in place. Working on your mindset, nervous system and energetics is what will hold you as you scale, with boundaries, with strength, with safety and with the ability to handle whatever is thrown at you.?

Inside our company, we work with all eight levers, ensuring they work together in harmony, like a powerful orchestra with my clients as the conductor, making it all come together beautifully.?

Which lever is the priority is dependent on the client and their business. It’s never the same journey, and we allow for those nuances to ensure what we do is bespoke for each client and meets them where they’re at.?

If this is resonating with you and you’d love to know more, I’d love to invite you to join me inside of my new free masterclass, Scale Your Way, where I’ll be sharing the real reasons you haven’t scaled yet, and what to do about it.

It’s at 1-2pm on 27th February, but there will be a replay.

JOIN HERE: gwent.co/scale