“If you’re not growing, you’re dying” is a quote often attributed to William S. Burroughs but Tony Robbins said it, as well; it’s typically mentioned in regard to personal growth and development, but many people feel that it is relevant to business. It is true that your competitors are striving to grow, so if you’re not, you’re losing market share. On the other hand, some people have perfectly good lifestyle businesses and measure their success on attendance at their kids’ games, concerts and such. For them, growth and scaling are not the goal. But what if they are for you? And can you grow too fast?

We typically see our small business clients first grow their businesses through strategic hiring. A common inflection point seems to be $1.25 million or so in revenues, when the Founder finds that their hands are full – and those multiple hats are getting heavy. Ideally, this pivotal hire should be done 3-6 months ahead of acute need, to prepare the new hire, the position itself (job description, goals, reporting – more on that later) and the rest of the business. Or there may be a bottleneck or increased demand in your service, production or fulfillment that could be best addressed with targeted hiring. Offering a new product/service or entering a new market could predicate a need for additional staff or management. These are all great reasons. Vanity is not a great reason. We’ve read countless business plans with a fully-staffed C-suite out of the gate; it’s too early and too expensive. But when business warrants growth, proceed.

We mentioned a job description and such. This is part of the founder’s homework of documentation. It’s not sexy, but it’s vital. If it’s not documented, it can’t scale. Documentation goes far beyond personnel, however. SOP’s should be created (videos work well for many tasks and we’ve seen success with solutions such as ScribeNow). This is the time to identify bottlenecks, automate some rudimentary tasks, get technology infrastructure in place. CRM and accounting solutions replace spreadsheets, project management tools replace sticky notes, financial systems such as invoicing, expense tracking and reporting replace ledgers.

Forecasting and budgeting are just as essential as they were during the start-up phase, as undercapitalization and cash flow issues are the reason for 80%+ of business failures. The new hire, product or market will rarely come on board with instant profitability, so working capital and reserves or lines of credit are vital. We asked if a business can grow too fast; it certainly can if growth outpaces capital and control.

This period of change is the time to over-communicate with all relevant business units (who, ideally, would have provided input and have buy-in for all of the above). I was once asked by a store owner if every 6 months was too frequent for staff meetings. I responded that chain restaurants have meetings every shift. And as geographic scope or the organizational chart expand, look to tools such as Slack to keep in touch.

We actually find that keeping in touch isn’t as much of a problem for founders as letting go. Founders can’t (and shouldn’t) keep doing everything. They need to learn to progressively delegate and trust their hires. This doesn’t mean that business is now a free-for-all. These new managers should be empowered to make decisions, but guardrails are important. A paradigm such as a RACI matrix defines who’s Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.

Any discussion of scaling has to include reminders about the importance of culture and core values.  Company culture doesn’t mean snacks in the breakroom. Defining your culture principles is just as important as SOPs, and helps ensure that scaling doesn’t dilute what you stand for. Those first few managers can either amplify your culture or destroy it. Train them in your management philosophy, and allow them to make decisions aligned with your culture and values. Allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised by the decisions they make. New ideas and perspectives strengthen culture, they don’t threaten it.

If you’re choosing to scale (and remember, it is a choice), scale sustainably, with systems in place to guide all concerned. The recipe has three ingredients: People, Processes and Procedures.