The approved business planning process for scale-ups

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March 1, 2023

The approved business planning process for scale-ups

The approved business planning process for scale-ups – Every business has a unique strategy, but companies that successfully scale up often follow the same best practices. However, this article will point you in the right direction for building a winning scaling strategy. Furthermore, this article will demonstrate the way that you can divert your marketable strategy from a static report into a powerful format that will help your business make due and flourish.

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The approved business planning process for scale-ups

The importance of business planning for scale-ups

Most potential investors will want to see a business plan before they consider funding your business. Although many businesses are tempted to use their business plans solely for this purpose, a good plan should set the course of a business over its lifespan.
However, when it comes to allocating resources across a company, a business plan is crucial. It is a tool that you can use as a strategy document or to attract new funding. A solid business plan explains how you intend to apply for the investment or loan from the bank.

Here are seven tips to consider as you scale your business:

1. Strategize how to increase sales

Increasing sales is a top priority for any business looking to scale. Scaling sales can either mean adding new customers or growing the average revenue from current customers. While both options drive results, expanding your relationship with current customers is often more cost-effective than attracting new business. On average, getting a new customer can cost six to seven times more than keeping and engaging customers you already have. To scale—rather than grow—your business, think of ways to increase sales while maximizing profit and minimizing additional resources.

Some best practices to increase sales include:

Zone in on a target market
Understand customer behavior
Address customer feedback
Build a team of skilled sales representatives
Develop an effective marketing plan
Manage leads and customer relationships with CRM software
Refine your message

The approved business planning process for scale-ups

2. Invest in technology

A global study from Automation Anywhere found that the average worker spends than roughly 40% of their day on manual administrative tasks. With the right technology, many of these tasks can be automated, freeing up time for team members to focus more on broader business goals and strategic priorities.
Automating manual tasks is critical to scaling a business because you can drive improved business outcomes among the team members you already have on board.

To scale your business, consider investing in technology to help automate tasks and processes such as:

Team member onboarding
Accounting and payroll
Customer relationship management
Project management
Appointment scheduling
When thinking about how to scale your business through automation, compare different technology partners and vendors based on usability, customer service, implementation timeline, cost, and other key criteria.
Furthermore, to automating tasks, standardizing your business processes using technology will help as you build your team. Implementing approved technology and documenting a clear set of instructions for specific tasks will make the scaling process much smoother.

3. Expand your team according to the market’s needs

As you map out the team you need to scale your business, a first step is determining the skills required to meet your goals and identifying any skills gaps you have on your team.

However, think about specific hard and soft skills that will help your organization drive business outcomes and best support customers. Hard skills are job-specific, technical, measurable competencies gained through education and experience. Soft skills are self-developed traits that help individuals work well in a team, lead by example, and adapt well to a company’s culture. Soft skills can be a bit tricky to define and measure, but are no less important than hard skills.

Examples of hard and soft skills include:

Hard skills. Coding, business analytics, search engine optimization, graphic design, project management
Soft skills. Agility, customer service, communication, organization, time management‍
Also take leadership skills into consideration, as leaders on your team are responsible for providing direction and ensuring team members understand what needs to be accomplished to achieve your business goals.

Examples of leadership skills include:

Active listening
Problem-solving
Relationship building
Emotional intelligence
Delegation

The approved business planning process for scale-ups

Talent Scout recruiters vet the very best developers, designers, marketers, creatives, and other professionals on the Upwork platform and get to know each person individually, assessing whether their hard and soft skills will be the right fit for your team. A hand-selected shortlist is then delivered to you. Through Upwork, you can use built-in collaboration tools to seamlessly schedule interviews and extend offers.

4. Get external help

During the early stages of business growth, many organizations have a handful of core team members who wear multiple hats. However, in the long run, expecting every team member to be a high-performing generalist can lead to costly errors and burnout. As you scale your business, consider bringing in skilled specialists to improve efficiency and drive outcomes.

Engaging specialized talent might sound costly and challenging to scale, which can be the case with full-time workers if they aren’t yet needed full time. Instead, businesses are increasingly embracing a more cost-effective option: independent professionals. In fact, 78% of businesses have used remote independent talent in the past year, while 47% plan to use more in the next two years.

Also, rather than making the business case and waiting for budget approval to hire full-time workers, independent professionals are often paid on a per-project basis and can be brought in as needed. This enables you to create a variable cost for talent, compared to the traditional fixed cost for full-time workers. With this approach, you can more efficiently scale your team while reducing costs, boosting productivity, and driving business agility.

However, as you look for talented independent professionals to scale your business, you don’t have to approach the search alone. Enterprise Suite is a powerful platform that offers immediate access to top independent professionals, contractors, consultants, and agencies. There’s never been a more flexible way to hire, as Enterprise Suite takes all the logistical and operational headaches off your hands, helping you quickly fill internal skill gaps and build your dream team.

The approved business planning process for scale-ups

5. Create a plan around realistic goals

Businesses that effectively scale strike the right balance between setting reasonable, yet challenging goals. Goals that aren’t clear or realistic might demotivate team members, which can have a negative impact on your ability to scale. Once the leadership team aligns on goals, communicate your plan with the entire team to get everyone on board and excited to contribute.

For example, let’s say you set a goal to achieve a 50% increase in sales over the next year. To achieve this goal, you might set monthly or quarterly milestones along the way. This can then trickle down into setting expectations for individual team members related to the total number of calls and meetings with prospects, based on historical data on the average number of meetings required to close a sale.

The approved business planning process for scale-ups

Furthermore, when setting a plan or timeline to achieve goals, keep in mind seasonality throughout the year. For example, sales or hiring might slow during the summer when many people take time away from work. Have a plan in place to account for these slower periods as you break down your milestones for each month or quarter. To build and execute a business plan that will help your organization effectively scale, consider enlisting the help of an experienced business planner.

6. Develop management skills

Managers at your organization are responsible for motivating team members and achieving independent team goals—as well as holding team members accountable for outcomes. Individual managers’ effectiveness can have a direct impact on your organization’s likelihood to successfully scale. Therefore, managers across departments need to have the right skills to drive positive business outcomes.
Also, Whether you’re developing management skills among your current team members, hiring full-time workers, or engaging business managers, identify the most important skills that will positively contribute to scaling your business.

Management skills can include:

Critical thinking
Strategic planning
Time management
Change management
Leadership

7. Focus the company’s offerings

Companies with a main priority of growth—as opposed to scale—focus on bringing in as much revenue as possible, often casting a wide net with company offerings and targeted customers. This approach can drive initial revenue, but often poses risks to long-term growth and scalability.

Lacking focus with company offerings can lead to engaging customers who aren’t the best fit for a company’s solutions or neglecting current customers because the business is too focused on bringing on new ones. It also leaves little room for a business to stand out as an expert on any specific solution or industry.

The approved business planning process for scale-ups

Finally, organizations that successfully scale understand the importance of focusing their products, services, and target market. This can position your business to better meet the needs of your core customers, stand out from the competition, and become a market leader.

Here are a few ways to focus your company’s offering:

Understand your strengths and weaknesses
Carve out a niche for your products and services (think customer size and industry)
Calculate your total addressable market
Assess the competition
Identify your target customers’ challenges
Learn from current customers’ behavior and preferences
Develop solutions and messaging that address customer pain points
While focusing your business offerings can help you gain a competitive advantage, it’s not a one-and-done strategy. Your organization should continuously evaluate the market, the latest technology, and your customers’ needs, and evolve your offerings over time to scale your business long-term.

The approved business planning process for scale-ups

Ask for Help:

Finally, ask for help from cessummit.com. for your business plans and feasibility analysis. Cessummit.com business development and support services will register your business with CAC and obtain other essential licenses for you. Also, contact us today at +234 905 313 0518, or [email protected] if you have any queries.

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The approved business planning process for scale-ups

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The approved business planning process for scale-ups