Knowing how to quickly scale your startup can mean the difference between success and failure. A common reason startups fail is not keeping up with its growth. You want to delay increasing expenses as long as you can, while increasing revenue.
Use a Shared Workspace
Hiring employees is an expense many startup owners want to delay as long as possible, and when they do hire employees, they only hire a few. Using a shared workspace is a creative way to put yourself in a serious environment surrounded by like-minded people. This important aspect of success is sometimes forgotten by new business owners. You have access to support, resources and knowledge in a shared workspace.
Outsource Strategically
Smart outsourcing will save you a lot of money and time. For example, instead of handling shipping and hauling yourself, this is one of the first things you should outsource as you start to scale up. Not all hauling companies require huge loads, so choose what fits your needs, preferably with room to grow as your business expands. In addition to more strategic product shipping and hauling practices, you should look into outsourcing inventory and conversion optimization.
When you outsource inventory, you can put off hiring employees. You also save time that could be better spent on other aspects of your startup. Conversion optimization is an inexpensive way to increase how many visitors on your website become customers. Inexperienced website owners often lose out on potential customers because they don’t know how to optimize conversions.
Automate!
Automate everything you possibly can. Even if you don’t think a way exists, look into it. You may be surprised at how many tasks can be automated. As technology advances, more and more ways of automation exist. Examples of tasks your startup can automate are social media posts, email marketing, supply chain logistics and competitive analysis.
Although the entire process of social media and email marketing can’t be automated, parts of it can. For instance, you can set up your social media accounts to automatically post the title of your new blog post with a link to the blog when it’s published. You can also have a “thank you” email automatically sent to new subscribers on your email list. The initial email sequence that subscribers go through is also an automated process. You can set up a short course or a series of valuable emails everyone receives upon subscribing.
With creativity and an open mind on how to save money and time, you can quickly scale your startup. If you implement the three methods listed above, you will be able to grow your customer base without greatly increasing your expenses.