Scalability - Part Two: The Eight P’s of Scalability

recommend that you have a brief review of the 5 Phases of Scalability from the previous article. You’ll see that

Phase 3 involves staying as a Solopreneur but Scaling your earnings through the strategy of Premium Pric- ing. Phase 4 is about Scalable Value Delivery (developing systems and people to deliver products or services) and Phase 5 involves Scalable Marketing.

So back to you. Does Phase 3, 4 or 5 sound like a good idea?

It’s important to note that the phase you target needs to be aligned to your preferred Life Style and “Entrepreneurial Style”. For example: do you love the idea of being a hermit and working from your home and orchestrating contractors via Skype or similar? Or would you go nuts without contact with three dimensional human beings in an office environ- ment? Do you want to manage, lead and inspire a team? Or does that idea make you want to run for the bathroom?

Once you are clear about your Business Style you can then figure out how far through the above five phases you wish to travel.

There is no right or wrong to your answer as to which stage is best for you other than that you definitely don’t want to stay stuck in Phase 1 (no money) or Phase 2 (no time). But whether you settle happily into Phase 3 or move into Phase 4 or 5 is your call and depends on your chosen Business Style and personal Life Style.

The benefits of Scaling to at least Phase 3 are significant:

Your Personal Life Style is better because you have the time and money to:

• Create the lifestyle that you really want

• Relax knowing that there is more than enough money coming in each and every month

• Better quality health care

• Better quality education for the kids

• Better quality housing and transport

• Enjoy more time with your partner and kids and take more of an interest in the grandkids (believe me, they come along eventually!) and your parents (remember them?)

• Have enough time for nurturing close friendships

• Invest money and time in what I call “passion pas- times” be that travelling (love it!), sporting, artistic, cul- tural or philanthropic – or all of them

• Enjoy more “big-boy” or “big-girl” toys

Your Business Life Style is better too because:

• You get to help increasing numbers of clients who benefit from your gift

• You can afford better quality customer service, thus retaining clients for longer

• Depending on the Scalability options you adopt (see below) you can offer greater value at lower prices thus broadening your appeal to a wider marketplace audi- ence

• Regardless of the above point, you can enjoy higher profit margins

• You get to relax and have more fun

• So how do you do it?

The good news is that there are many ways to achieve scalability, even if you don’t want to get to Phase 5. And that’s important because we all have brains that are wired a little differently.

And very few people have a brain that works well with every one of the Scalability options listed below.

In fact, out of the thousands of people I’ve worked with I’ve only met a handful that can exploit the potential of all 8 Scalability options. These are the super-achievers who earn millions and it’s likely you’ve never heard of them because mostly, they are very private individuals.

In Part 1 (Article #7) above, I gave you plenty of Scalable examples within the 5 Phases. In this part we’ll explore the 8 primary ways to create Scalability.

Let’s explore your options and see which ones suit your brain best.

Here’s are my 8 P’s of Scalability

1. Product

2. Pricing

3. People – your network

4. Processes

5. Promotions – product, including media

6. Promotions – publicity, including media

7. People – other’s people’s networks

8. Penetration (a.k.a. distribution channels)

Product. This requires re-engineering the form of Value Delivery you take to your target market so that you can de- liver increasingly more value without you needing to invest more time. For example, it takes me the same time to write a report each month regardless of whether one person pays for it or 10,000 pay for it. This report is therefore an example of Scalable Value Delivery.

It doesn’t really matter if you have a product (e.g. yoghurt) or a service (e.g. accountancy). What I’m really talking about here is Value Delivery. As soon as you move your mind from “product” or “service” to “value” you open up to a whole new world of possibilities because your thinking shifts from “time=money” to “value=money” and you are free to create new ways to deliver that value.

Case in point: Initially Pat (seePart 1 (Article #7) ) thought that the more designs she produced the more money she made. She felt that it was important to understand the needs of each individual client and she prided herself on custom- izing solutions that gave her clients what they wanted and that were also an authentic expression of her values and per- sonality.

Which is really nice … but …

In phase 2, that thinking was having her trade off her value of “expressing my personality” against her values of “quality relationship with life partner and children”, “life- style” and indeed “life purpose”. Not worth it.

What the marketplace wants is great designs. Pat discov- ered that she can fill that need, express her creativity AND fulfill her personal values by switching her thinking to Scal- ability. Here’s the question Pat then asked:

“What would have to happen in order for me to fill the needs of 100 or 1,000 clients while having more than enough money and free time?”

(I invite you to ask the same question and brainstorm the answers for 15 minutes minimum.)

Trelise Cooper is a fashion designer who went from time=money to an empire, whilst still being totally authentic to her

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