After you have been running a home-based business for a while, you feel that the time is right to focus on scaling up. Making your business better and bigger through scaling up can also help you create a sustainable enterprise. When you have been used to your business ticking along each day, scaling up can feel scary, and you may feel apprehensive. To overcome these feelings, you need to take a targeted approach.
Produce an Action Plan
Before committing to changing anything, you need to produce an action plan for scaling up. An action plan is going to outline what you want to do in your business and why – you should be justifying the investment, particularly if you are taking out a loan to do so. For example, does scaling up mean looking at new markets, or is it all about the products and services you can offer? An action plan will help you focus your efforts and time. Creating a short-term action plan for your business that covers at least the next 12 months is crucial. This plan is then going to allow you to start setting actionable targets and goals which you can begin working on.
Monitor Existing Operations
Scaling up is not all about change. It is sometimes also about where you can make improvements too. To do this, you need to see where there is room for change and growth in the daily processes and operations you carry out. Monitor your existing business, and see where you can start doing things a little better. For instance, are your daily processes for invoicing too long and drawn out? Is customer service not currently a priority day to day when it should be? By taking a step back and monitoring for a few days, a week, or longer to get the best results, you can start to see where change and growth can take place.
Utilize Storage Systems and Think About Having a Base
When scaling up your home-based business, you may want to get a new base as you prepare for growth and change. Home addresses are not always appealing to customers and consumers. You may also struggle to get deliveries from suppliers to home addresses too. Therefore, as you start to grow, consider renting premises or storage systems that will allow you the space to grow. One handy tip that many businesses like to take advantage of regardless of whether they are growing, but could come in particularly handy at this moment in time is parcel lockers. With more customers to serve and more parcels to send out to them, the pressures can mount, but with intelligent locker solutions, you can organize for your customers to pick up and return parcels to this locker.
Begin Networking With Purpose
As a home-based business, it can be difficult to connect with others. This needs to change when you are scaling up. As soon as you can, start focusing on networking. When you network with a purpose, you make valuable connections that help you grow. Connections that help you engage with new suppliers will be important. Online and offline networking may help you reach new markets, and it may help you form valuable partnerships with other businesses.
Connecting With Freelancers
To successfully scale your business, you will need to utilize the knowledge and expertise of others – this is where your networking will come into use. Connecting with other freelancers who have skills and attributes that you do not is a positive thing. Trying to do everything by yourself is not going to be productive, and it is going to leave you feeling overwhelmed. Other freelancers will have skills and knowledge that you can utilize however you need to. For example, some freelancers will be able to help you develop a better and more inclusive website and blog. Others may be able to help you secure funding for new premises or for new purchases.
Invest in Marketing
Increasing market awareness and building your brand and reputation for your home-based business is important. To scale up, you are going to need to reach new audiences and marketplaces. Marketing will be intrinsically linked to everything that you do. Without marketing, your business name will not get seen and known by others. Investing in your business growth but not investing in marketing can spell disaster.
Marketing will help you expand your reach, and it will help you build awareness amongst existing and new customers. Using a variety of marketing channels, such as blogging, radio adverts, and even email newsletters, may help you scale up your business. To get the most out of marketing, you need to create a budget and a timescale. This way, you can monitor your efforts versus your spending, and you can see what has worked and what will continue to work in the future.