As your business reaches a new level of growth, you need to plan carefully for it. While most startups focus on short-term goals, you must establish long-term goals as well. These will provide the direction your company needs to grow. You should also determine how to achieve these goals, where to find funding, which markets to penetrate, and who to hire to accomplish your mission. This process may take months to complete, but it is critical to successfully scaling your business.

Planning

If you’re looking to grow your business, there are a few key elements you need to prepare for. While most startups start out by focusing on short-term goals, it is important to have long-term plans. These plans should outline where the company wants to go, what markets it wants to penetrate, and who will be involved in the process. This planning process can take months, but it is essential for success. As your startup continues to incur growth, you’ll need to add new employees, invest in bigger facilities, and expand into different markets. In addition, you’ll need to ramp up your advertising, attend trade shows, and prospect leads. While the startup stage requires little or no investment, scaling-up requires massive investments to achieve exponential growth.

Creating growth

In order to create growth from startup to scale-up, most young companies will need to raise significant amounts of money. This typically comes in the form of a series B or C round of funding. The earlier rounds of funding are typically used for MVP development and establishing market fit, while the later stages are focused on expansion. As your business creates growth, you may be faced with cash flow issues. Having a sound plan for financing growth is essential. However, it’s not always easy to secure funding as your business grows rapidly. In this case, you need to have a plan that allows you to adjust your strategy as needed. In order to scale up, you must create a strategy to manage risk and focus on maximizing revenue. The first step in this process is to identify what resources you need and prioritize them. Using a systematic approach will help you achieve your goals faster and with fewer risks.

Physical and organizational structures

Changing business environments are requiring a change in physical and organizational structures. The mechanistic, vertically-organized model of the 1980s was becoming obsolete. Newer, more flexible designs were needed to keep pace with the new market dynamics. For example, newer organizations were becoming more agile and organic, embracing a mix of the traditional vertical and horizontal organizational models. While both types of organizational structures have their advantages and disadvantages, they are not mutually exclusive. In fact, each type of structure can be a combination of the two. For example, divisional structures can allow a company to create specialized teams dedicated to specific areas, such as manufacturing and marketing. In addition, geographic divisions can have a high degree of autonomy, allowing them to act independently of the corporate headquarters. The physical and organizational structures of a business are not the same, but they all have their advantages and disadvantages. Different types of organizations have different strengths and weaknesses, so it is important to understand which one works best for your company. While traditional hierarchical systems are still prevalent in many businesses, more innovative ones are more effective at achieving rapid growth.

The hybrid approach

Organizations that specialize in many fields tend to use a hybrid approach. They use one structure for their core activities and another for their specialized fields. The functional structure is an example of this type of structure. It works well for companies with a variety of products and services. The functional structure involves separate departments and functions, and a top-down control system. This type of organization is common among large government organizations and many smaller firms. Another type of structure is called a network structure. This style is most modern and has low bureaucracy. The managers in this style tend to coordinate both internal and external relationships. The network structure’s goal is to promote fast organizational evolution and to adjust to changing environments.

Hiring

The first step to hiring for growth is to define the purpose of your business. Growth means maximizing your resources and impacting your bottom line. It means that you don’t just want to hire people who can do what you do; you want to hire people who are willing to try new things and improve your business. It means that you want your employees to continually improve, because complacency kills value. Scaling up your business is not easy, but it is also not impossible. There are many ways to improve your efficiency and stay ahead of the competition. One of the best ways to do this is to hire people who are tech savvy. Technology allows businesses to manage their resources more effectively and keep up with the latest releases which allows for the right amount of growth. You may be able to find the skills you need internally, including analyst roles and customer support personnel. If you have an existing team, you can even consider rehiring those people. However, you should be cautious with your hiring decisions. The right employees can make the difference between a successful business and a company that has no growth potential. If you do choose to hire from outside, be sure to check their references and ensure they have a great attitude. The process of hiring is highly competitive. Because no company is an island, competition for the best talent is fierce. You can increase your chances of hiring the right candidates faster by focusing on skills that are in demand for your business. Having the right people on your team can make the difference between a mediocre product and a stellar customer service.

Product-market fit

If you’re planning to scale your business, you’ll need to make sure your product-market fit is solid and your team is reliable. It’s also a good idea to consider identifying your target market and finding the best funding options. Scaling a business without these factors is risky and will not ensure that your product will find a market. Fortunately, when you’ve nailed these three essential components, you can confidently execute everything on a larger scale.

Setting goals

The first step in scaling up a business is to set your goals. While most startups focus on short-term growth and short-term goals, it’s important to have long-term goals so you can set the direction of your business growth. Setting goals helps you determine how to reach them, where to get investors, what markets to tap, and who to hire. This planning process may take months, but it is essential for the success of your business. Another key to scaling up your business is to adapt to changes in the marketplace. While startups are known for being lean and nimble, it’s also important to be flexible in order to stay relevant in a constantly changing industry. Failing to adapt to new market changes will lead to stagnation and lost profits. For example, Netflix started out as a DVD rental company and when the market for DVD rentals fell, the company made the wise decision to transition to streaming services. The OECD defines a scale-up as an organization that grows 20% or more annually. This is the stage when a startup has built enough traction to attract investments and execute growth without doubling its workforce or spending more than it can afford. Several Swiss companies are thriving in this stage, with one of them growing 44 times between 2017 and 2021. Another example is Oyster, a global employment platform founded by IMD alumnus Tony Jamous. If you like what you read, check out our other articles here.