You Must Plan To Scale Your Business With Intent
You must create a solid plan to scale your online business successfully. This is not something that you can do off the top of your head. There is a lot involved in scaling, and you need to think about what can go wrong and how you will recover from this.
Your plan needs to cover every aspect of scaling your online business. You are going to be making some big changes, and you need to think this through before you go ahead. It sounds exciting to increase your customer base and extend your range of products, but if you get it wrong, then you can end up with nothing.
Learn From Others
There are plenty of other online business owners that have successfully scaled their operations, so you can learn from them. Many of these people will provide details about their online business scaling online, so with a little search effort you can read about what they did and how they did it.
It can really help you to learn how other people approached the task of scaling their online business. Some people will have made mistakes that you can avoid with your business. Spend some time researching this online; it will be time well spent if you can learn some valuable lessons.
Invest in Training Courses
Another way that you can learn how to scale your online business the right way is to find training courses that cover this in detail. You will need to pay for this training, but it can be worthwhile if it can provide the information that you need to create your plan for scaling.
It is important that you learn from people who have actually gone through the process of scaling. There are quite a few training courses on this subject, choose one that best matches your current business situation.
What You Need to Include in Your Growth Plan
Before you create your plan to grow your online business, it is important that you understand how your online business works at present. This means that you must “know your numbers” which includes the size of your client base and the number of sales that you have made.
Work out the conversion rates for your existing products. How many prospects do you need to make a sale? Having these numbers to hand will help you to plan for scaling. You can extrapolate the number of prospects and customers you will require to meet your new revenue targets.
Marketing is an essential part of any plan to scale an online business.
What marketing methods did you use to gain the customers that you already have?
What was the cost of these methods and can you scale them up easily?
Are there any limits with your current online business?
Can you only accept a finite amount of new orders each day?
If there are limits, your plan needs to include details of how you are going to overcome these limits and increase your order capacity.
Do you know what your bestselling products and services are?
How will you increase the sales of these products to achieve your scaling goals?
Is it necessary for you to create new products and services?
Build A Team To Help With Your Aggressive Business Growth Goals
If you want to successfully scale your online business, then you need to establish a good team to help you. Remember that the first rule of scaling your online business is removing yourself from the daily running of it.
You do not have to employ people as permanent team members unless you want to do this. Some people hire a key employee and give them the responsibility of running their online business. They communicate with all the outsourcers and ensure that things get done properly and on time.
When you are working with several people, this kind of role is necessary. If you don’t have the budget or inclination to hire someone to manage them all, then you will have to assume this role. This is fine, and most online business owners that scale do this work themselves.
Virtual Assistant
This individual will work full time or part-time with you to assist in the scaling of your online business. They can do a lot of the chasing work for you. Just tell them who is working on specific tasks for you and the delivery dates they promised.
Tell your freelancers that you have a new virtual assistant and that he or she will be following up with them on the work they are doing for you. They will be fine with this, and it can take a lot of pressure off your shoulders.
A good virtual assistant can also perform tasks for you such as writing, posting on social media and more. You will need to explain to them what you want done, and if necessary show them how to do it.
There are many websites where you can find a good virtual assistant. Look on Upwork, Fiverr, and search for other virtual assistant websites on Google. Many online business owners use virtual assistants from the Philippines. Their English is usually very good (especially if they have an advanced college degree), and they will not be very expensive.
Create a Reliable Freelancing Team
As you outsource more and more tasks for your online business, you will use different freelancers, and you can create a good team here. Some freelancers will need to talk to each other to ensure that a task is completed properly.
You are managing this situation, so you need to take control. Regular Skype or Zoom sessions with your virtual team can be productive. The more that these people know about your online business and your plans for it, the better. Be sure to involve your virtual assistant in these meetings.
Having a great team of freelancers that you know you can rely on is a great feeling. You know that your online business will be in “good hands” whether you are there or not. It is essential to have a good team in place so that scaling your online business goes as smoothly as possible.
Have Experts You Can Contact
It is always good to have access to experts to help you with scaling your online business. Having an experienced mentor can be very valuable for you. You do not have to use them all the time, but when you need a second opinion or good advice, then you can turn to them.
You may even consider a business growth coach to help you get started and keep you on track.
