3 Ways to scale your business

1. Invest in process management - As a small business owner you probably have direct lines of communication to all of your employees. But as your business develops you must turn your attention to strategic questions and leave the day-to-day operations of your business to others.

According to Andrew Laurillard, founder of the Giggling Squid chain of ‘Thai tapas’ restaurants, understanding the value of company processes was vital to its growth. The business founded in 2008 and today has 12 restaurants across England with five further openings planned.

“As the company grows and the directors spend less time at the sharp end, it’s essential to invest in information reporting and process management, to know what’s going on,” says Laurillard, who employs 300 staff at the Giggling Squid. The business grew profits 123% and sales 93% last year alone. “Processes, once a dirty word, are now essential for keeping control of quality. The trick is to retain the same small company culture as processes step into the role that regular direct contact with the owners used to do.”

2. Outsource as much as you can - Transaction software business First Data Merchant Solutions recently commissioned YouGov to find out the biggest struggles facing small and mid-sized businesses in 2014. It discovered that daily administrative tasks were taking up too much of their time, at the expense of activities that encourage growth strategically. The survey found that nearly seven in 10 business owners described running their operations as “a constant challenge” and a quarter admitted they spent less than an hour each day on “proactive business growth.

If this describes your business, then look at outsourcing simple tasks to free up your own time to work on more valuable things. The internet, and most recently the Cloud, has given rise to a multitude of cheap services run by third parties in accounting, marketing and PR, customer relationship management, Telephone Answering  and plenty more besides.

3. Stay agile - Related to the last point is the need for growing businesses to stay agile. Being stripped-down and streamlined means you can react quickly to new opportunities as they present themselves. This is the chief advantage of being a very small business; so it’s important not to throw away this natural benefit as you grow. “Start-up businesses are of a size which is advantageous.

 Consider whether your business set up gives you the most flexibility to take advantage of new opportunities,” advises John Styring, CEO of IglooBooks, which founded in 2003 and now employs more than 100 staff with a turnover of £23m. “It is the leanest, most adaptable companies that come out the other side as success stories. Business owners can increase their chances of getting there by streamlining their firm and adapting to the needs of the market.”

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