Tips to Grow and Scale Your Small Business with Marty Paradise

SUMMARY:

When it comes to businesses, big or small, they generally share many similar goals. Some of these can include preparing strong leadership, driving revenue, increasing profit, and contributing to society. The difference in the pursuit of those key elements by a big or small company is the scale in which they do it. Since small businesses often have fewer resources available, they sometimes don’t have as many options to operate as a larger company would. In this episode we will focus on three key things that can help a small business owner grow and scale their business.

1. Have a Vision and a Clear Mission

A simple yet clear analogy is to think of your business as a bus. You start by designing your bus and planning your dream destination. Then, you proceed to choose the people who you think are valuable to help you get to your destination. Each person has a different role and responsibility in helping the bus function properly along the way. Once the business model or the vision has been determined, it’s important to break down your goals by years. In other words, you determine different “pitstops” throughout the way. This includes both your short-term and long-term goals. As you reach each one of them, make adjustments, fix what’s broken, and keep going. The important thing is to stay true to the path you chose. Having a vision and a mission that is clear and constantly discussed helps employees visualize it as well, which allows owners and employees to work every day with a purpose in mind.

2. Create Powerful Systems

A great deal of business owners have the desire to grow their business but feel like they are not able to because they are on the verge of burning out from the weight of carrying the whole business on their shoulders. It’s almost impossible to scale if every single aspect of the company depends on the owner. Creating systems enables others to complete tasks with better accuracy and efficiency, allowing the owner to step away from certain aspects of the business while giving attention to more important matters. Creating processes is essential to scaling a business. It’s important to understand that while setting processes is crucial, fixing them has the same importance. Part of the reality of owning a business is understanding that systems will break. However, being able to quickly fix and improve them is a key to success. 

3. Promote a Shift in Leadership Mindset

Ultimately, a business leader’s main responsibilities should be leading their employees, managing the business as a whole, and holding people accountable. The owner of the business should, with time, shift from working in the business to working on the business. Sometimes it helps to remove yourself from your business, so you can see it from the outside. This practice can help you clear your mind and see aspects that might not be so clear when seeing it up close on a daily basis. 

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