david stack: 5 ways to scale and grow your startup

5 WAYS TO SCALE AND GROW YOUR STARTUP

By David Stack

FOR STARTUPS, DRIVING

CONTINUAL GROWTH IS A

CRITICAL COMPONENT.

“If YOU don't think about scale, who will?

FROM OPTIMIZING YOUR RESOURCES TO FIGURING OUT HOW TO GROW REVENUE WHILE KEEPING OPERATING COSTS LOW, SCALE IS SOMETHING THAT ANY ENTREPRENEUR MUST CAREFULLY CONSIDER WHILE LAUNCHING AND GROWING A STARTUP.

HERE ARE 5 FACTORS TO KEEP IN MIND AS YOU EMBARK UPON

SCALING YOUR BUSINESS:

1. VISION

VISION

➤It’s critical to have an overall cohesive vision for all of the important staffing, systems, and process decisions that you implement.

VISION

➤The impact these decisions will have must be kept in mind for the implementation of your overall business strategy.

VISION

➤Essentially you want to make sure you’re always seeing the forest, and not just the trees.

2. PEOPLE

PEOPLE

➤It’s essential that you evaluate staffing plans for the next 12-18 months on a consistent basis.

PEOPLE

➤Hire “A Players” who understand your vision and are just as excited about achieving its success.

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PEOPLE

➤Make sure your staffing plan is aligned with the company’s culture and values.

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3. SYSTEMS

SYSTEMS

➤Evaluating when to upgrade your ERP is the most critical decision you can make.

SYSTEMS

➤The key is balancing where you are in the growth cycle.

4. CULTURE

CULTURE

➤Stay true to your core values and culture as you grow, and make sure that everyone on your team understands that building for scale is an essential part of your success plan.

5. SCALABILITY

SCALABILITY

➤In order to increase the probability of success and minimize future blockers to supporting the growth of the company, you must obsess about scale!

SCALABILITY

➤Remember that decisions that are made in the early days can have a far reaching impact in the future.

SCALABILITY

➤Pricing is a great example of an area that can have a broad impact on the company as it gains traction and attracts a larger customer base.

SCALABILITY

➤Having a focused and straightforward pricing strategy can help to ensure consistency and alignment between Sales, Marketing, Product, Customer Success, & Finance / Operations.

SCALABILITY

➤This is essential to help drive positive interactions with customers on an ongoing basis.

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David Stack is a chief financial officer with over 20 years of success in leading global financial operations for growing companies, particularly those in the software as a service (SaaS) industry. David is currently the CFO at Qstream, a Boston-based mobile enterprise software company that provides analytics to ignite high performance sales teams.