4 Mistakes that Make it Harder to Scale

We’re all thinking about it…

We all want to do it…

I’m talking about scaling our businesses!

You’ve crushed some major business milestones along the way – you’ve zoomed past your $100k milestone with ease, conquered hiring your first freelancer or VA, and now your sight is on keeping the growth going, but this one is not as clear or straightforward…

Maybe because making your next $100k suddenly seems harder than before.

Maybe because you have admin, management, and current clients to manage and you don’t have the time that you had when you were in growth mode.

Maybe because you don’t know what to expect when scaling your business so it’s easier to delay doing it altogether.

And all this is taking up valuable space in your brain and making it hard to confidently make decisions and move forward.

So to help you scale with confidence, here are the 4 common mistakes that I see business owners making all the time when they scale their businesses, and what you should do instead so that you don’t delay and have a negative experience.

1️⃣ Underestimating your involvement

Preparing your business for scale is a lift. No lie, no jokes. This is just a fact. It takes work – work that often has to fit in between your ongoing operations and client work.

To get your systems right, to get your software right, or to get your team right – it takes a certain amount of effort. You can definitely have your VA and your team do the heavy lifting for you…

…AND you still need to take part in the process so that the systems and tools being put in place actually align with your business vision because it’s your business.

I see A LOT of business owners prepare to scale their businesses by completely outsourcing and delegating their operations.

Sure, that sounds like the easiest way to scale, especially if operations isn’t your jam, but remember that it’s still your business. You need to understand how it works enough to lead your team going forward.

And if you’re out of the loop on the operations, it makes it harder to lead. Not to mention, it’s also harder to pick the right people to outsource to and know they’ve done a good job if you have no understanding of what they’ve built.

What should you do instead?

Be prepared to be part of the scaling discussions.

It’s your business and your input is critical to your operations being sustainable in the long run. You don’t have to build everything yourself. In fact, you don’t even need to write a single process outline or SOP yourself, but you do need to know the results that each process is supposed to produce so that you can lead your team to create the systems for you.

When we create new processes in my business, I ask my team for input as we walk through the processes together so we include their insight as the people executing the process for me. This helps me understand any gaps we might have and also guide them to the results that the process needs to achieve.

2️⃣ Being unprepared for disruption

Prepping your business for scale isn’t a magic trick or a wish being granted. There is no “blink my eyes and it’s all suddenly there” moment.

Prepping your biz for scale means transition – some big and some small – but it’s still transition. The process can bring to the surface things you haven’t thought of, things you don’t want to think about, things you do out of habit, and things you do to make things easier for yourself but are ultimately harder for everyone on your team.

It might get uncomfortable and you might not want to do it because change can be messy and uncomfortable…

But sometimes, you have to slow down to prepare your business (and yourself) for the level up. You’re changing how your business operates so you can be more efficient and you are set up for more ease.

What should you do instead?

Accept that it will be a transition and that you can do a lot to minimize the disruption, but there will be some disruptions. Give yourself space and time to manage those disruptions.

Follow through and remember why you set out to upgrade your operations in the first place. I guarantee you that the ops setup that might have gotten you to a shaky $100k or $200k, WILL NOT get you to $500k or a million.

With one of my last Done-For-You clients, we strategically picked out the start and delivery date for our work together to make sure they weren’t in a launch period, all their team members were in the office, and no new 1:1 clients were onboarding during the same period.

They understood there would be changes so we did our best to make sure that none of the client-facing sides of the business would be impacted by it.

3️⃣ Not thinking about the process changes

You can’t prepare to scale and keep every part of your business and how you do things exactly the same. Remember what I said above ☝️☝️ the ops setup might have gotten you to a shaky $100k or $200k, but WILL NOT get you to $500k or Million.

There has to be an evolution in how you operate because as much as you want to touch every single client in every step of their journey, it won’t happen. That is the definition of unscalable – you personally having a hand in every client.

Plus it’s inefficient, impractical, and ties you to your business more completely than ever before. Forget about taking a vacation if you personally need to do the work to touch the client. Forget about taking in more clients because even if you’re doing less, part of the process requires you, so you personally will still reach capacity.

What should you do instead?

I get that it feels uncomfortable, but resist the urge to go back to the “old way” of doing things to keep it “easy”. Accepting that there will be disruptions and changes will help you out a lot here, and also know that the old way was only “easier” because you knew exactly how to do it that way.

The new way will quickly become the “old” way if you give it a chance and you’re involved in creating the “new” way.

A previous client struggled with this – the new processes and tech were just not how they were used to operating so they dragged their feet and resisted, even after their whole team tried to work the new systems. It created so much confusion for the team and delayed their next launch for almost 3 months while they recalibrated.

4️⃣ Not planning time to integrate

It can be easy to kick your heels up and cross “Prep to scale” off your to-do list when you hire a consultant or delegate your operations to your team members, but don’t underestimate the time it will take to complete AND fully integrate.

Of course, you can build a system in a few hours, but likely not the best or most scalable version of your systems. Especially if it’s your first time creating systems.

Because like a tailored wardrobe, your systems need testing and tweaking to fit you just right. AND remember, the results come as you actually start to use and integrate your systems, software, and team members together.

What should you do instead?

Keep in mind that you won’t see the final results until you AND your team have caught on to the new ops.

AND put the processes to work. You built the foundations, now put them to work for you so you can test and tweak them to make sure that they are running smoothly and delivering the exact results that you want every single time.

So many of my clients struggle with this one. They are SO EXCITED that the initial build is done, that they forget that they actually need to work their operations and make adjustments as they go. That’s why I always make sure to get a 4-week post-work check-in scheduled before we wrap up, so I can help keep them accountable for getting their systems just right and built to last.

Which scaling trap were you most surprised with? If you find yourself trapped, my Effortless Expansion program could be your pathway out.

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