SHOULD I SCALE OR SHOULD I GROW?

Have you ever wondered what is the difference between scaling and growing your business?

Basically, you grow your business when it becomes bigger in terms of team members, number of clients, revenue and investment. You have a higher number of contracts and you are working more hours.

You are no longer in the early stages and you are gaining confidence, people are aware of your brand and you see an increase in all business-related fields.

Unfortunately, this does not necessarily mean you are earning more, because you may have a lot of expenses that deplete your higher income.

In contrast, you are scaling when you are leveraging your resources. This means that the ratio between your income and your expenses is higher and higher and you are able to work less and gain more.

HOW CAN I SCALE?

PLAN

It may sound repetitive sometimes but actions without a plan are often messy and time-consuming. And, as your time is money, if you end up doing useless things or if you often change your mind and your goals or if you take different directions before completing your previews steps, you are not leveraging your resources in terms of time and efforts. You are working a higher number of hours that do not correspond with your income.

SYSTEMATIZE

Yes, I know, it’s my mantra. You can even think of it as my Business Name 😉

But, I truly believe this is one of the most important steps. So, imagine you have a system for every aspect of your business. You have everything organized. Your PM tool keeps track of every detail, including docs, deadlines, roles, templates, …. Your CRM tool keeps track of your contacts, proposals and invoices, schedules your appointments and gives you insights on your projects and finances. Your email marketing system facilitates contact with your audience and helps you communicate effectively. Your Google Drive stores your docs and makes them accessible from everywhere (hello location-free work!).

You have clear SOPs that make it easier to complete your tasks with a well-defined process, without forgetting anything and without having to re-invent the wheel every time. And, above all they allow you to quickly solve problems you have already dealt with in the past, saving tons of time in terms of research. Plus, they allow you to delegate, being a quick and clear reference for any team member without you having to spend time training multiple people.

AUTOMATE

If Systematizing a business is key, automating it is a super-power. Once you have set up all your systems, you need to find any inefficiencies, streamline your workflows and finally automate any process that you can automate.

Spend a minute to think about what this could mean for you. Imagine how you could leverage the systems and tools you are already using and find a way to make them actually do what you need to be done, without you being involved in the process.

This is a glance at what scaling means…You LEVERAGE what you have (meaning you are optimizing your investment) to gain time (time is money…remember?) and have things done on time and in a professional way, without this translating into more work for you or into more people doing the work.

CREATE PATTERNS

How can you avoid re-creating each service you have every-single-time?

You need to create some patterns.

What are patterns? They are repetitive actions that are automatically applied to your workload.

SOME EXAMPLES?

Create templates in your PM tool

• • I offer strategy sessions.
  • Every time I work on a strategy session I have some tasks to perform before, during and after the session
  • I have created a template in my ClickUp.
  • Any time I have a strategy session, I upload the template to my client’s folder
  • The templates contains all the tasks, instructions, link and docs I have to use to prepare and lead my strategy session and to customize it to my clients’ needs
  • In this way I save time and I don’t have to figure out the entire process every time
  • Result: I can schedule more strategy sessions and be more efficient in my delivery process

Use workflows

• • I onboard a new client
  • Every time I onboard someone new, I want to welcome my clients, give them step-by-step instructions, give them contact information, deliver a welcome pack and have a kick-off call scheduled
  • I have prepared all the material I want to deliver and built a workflow in Dubsado
  • Result: the workflow is automatically applied to any new clients. They receive their information on time, I won’t forget anything, and I am sure they are taken care of till they hop-on my kick-off call.

Use existing templates

• • I send out weekly newsletters to support and assist my audience
  • I love having a beautiful and clean layout
  • I created my first email in Mailerlite and saved it as a template
  • Result: I don’t have to re-create my weekly communication but can use a template I like and have my emails beautifully set out in a matter of minutes

Are you an entrepreneur working alone or with a small team? If you are looking for someone helping you setting up ClickUp for your business or if you want to discover if ClickUp is the right tool for you, I am here to help

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NEED TO BUY A CLICKUP OR A DUBSADO ACCOUNT?

When working in the Online Space, you realy need trusted tools to automate your business, create systems and SOPs and work efficiently.

Below you will find a link to the tools I need and I strongly recommend. Some of them may be affiliate links, which means that if you subscribe a paid account I receive a small commission. You won’t be charged more for this, though!

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