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Are you wondering how to scale your business without losing its soul? As a small business owner, you might have had those moments when you wanted to expand to meet rising demand quickly without veering off your original purpose and mission.
Such a journey might require you to make tough calls, but there are ingenious ways to scale without sacrificing your values.
Just like individuals, companies have a unique DNA that means more than a mere list of rules that govern it. Malcolm Allen of Graduate America states, “As organizations grow and expand, leaders should reinforce their company’s vision and mission to all employees to ensure that the culture remains consistent and robust.” You can reinforce your business’s culture through actions, policies, and daily interactions.
There are many expert tips for how to scale your business past 100K a month. But, according to Deloitte, 94% of business owners and 88% of job seekers say that healthy company culture is essential for success. As you scale your business and hire extra people, you don’t have to compromise your purpose. Hiring someone who doesn’t fit your organization’s culture is a formula for a disjointed workplace and costly bad hires.
Lauren Kolbe, the founder of Kolbeco, says, "You can teach someone to work, but you can’t teach them to love the way you operate.” An excellent way to assess a new hire’s cultural fit is by asking them behavioral and situational questions and involving your cultural ambassadors during the hiring process.
Your company's growth is good for the company and staff as long as they all share in the expansion. Keeping your employees in influential positions during expansion will retain the company’s culture amid new influences. Engaged, happy employees will also be more willing to protect the mission guiding your company's creation.
According to INC, increasing your employees' engagement (which boosts productivity) by only 10% will also increase your total profit by an astronomical $3,000 per employee annually.
Veronica Buitron of TangoCode Inc. believes that technology when optimized and used correctly, smooths out the bumps associated with team expansion. She adds, "Implementing automation tools increases employee bandwidth and allows employers to find candidates without rushing the hiring process and jeopardizing the corporate culture.”
In the best seller ‘Clockwork,’ Mike Michalowicz writes, "Managing your business means building systems to provide solutions through other people.”
In an interview on how to scale your business with Robert Depalo, a director at National Financial Network based in New York, he stated that many companies nowadays expand with money as the ultimate goal and neglect their missions, which extinguishes their culture faster than anything else.
During expansion, consider whether the growth of your business matches the positive aspects that separate you from your competitors. Finally, don’t forget to share the fruits of your success with your employees who participated in it.
The question of how to scale your business online while keeping it true to its purpose is one that many entrepreneurs struggle with. But as many business owners have come to discover, it’s possible to achieve both targets without sacrificing one for the other. However, be warned, the tradeoff isn’t as straightforward as it looks. But, by following the key points above, you can expand your business while staying true to your purpose.
