How to Get Leverage When Scaling Your Business to 7 Figures

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article belong to an independent guest author and not Leaderonomics, its directors, affiliates, or employees.
 

Just about every business owner dreams of the day they reach six figures. Owning a six-figure business is nothing to scoff at. Thousands of small businesses fold before they even have a chance to become profitable. Still, there’s something alluring about having a seven-figure business.
 
Having a six-figure business will give you money, but a seven-figure business will give you freedom. With a seven-figure business, you’ll have an abundance of capital required to create your dream team, invest heavily in yourself and your team, and you’ll have time to expand your business. As long as you’re only making six figures, you’ll remain tied to your business like an employee.

Read more: 6 Essential Tools For Scaling Your Business
 
Whether you’re still on your way to six figures, or you’re getting close to seven, here are some ways to get the leverage you need to make your seven-figure goal.

1. Start using industrial equipment

Only businesses with highly efficient processes will reach seven figures. Efficiency is different for every industry, but unless your entire business functions online, you’ll benefit from using industrial equipment.

Image source

If your business deals with large quantities or bulk items, make use of industrial equipment designed to make processes smooth and easy. For example, if you’re packaging grains in 25-and-50lb bulk bags, start using an electronic bagging scale. Your operations will run smoother, which will allow you to sell more product without extra work. 
 
Optimising your processes will also help you scale your business by creating a systematic, repeatable process that can be easily adopted by new corporate locations and franchises when you expand.
 
Other examples of industrial equipment that can help you improve your processes include:
 
·  Conveyor belts
·  Boxing machines (Amazon uses these)
·  Machines that mill, turn, and grind all-in-one
·  Laser welding machines
·  Machine learning software
 
Find out what machinery is available in your industry and streamline your processes. The investment will prove worthwhile.

2. Start where you are

It’s important to remember that you won’t create a seven-figure business overnight. There is no magic trick that will scale your business to seven figures.
 
No matter where you are, start there. For example, work on developing strong customer relationships, improving the customer experience, enhancing communication, strengthening your email marketing efforts, and building a rock-solid team. You’ll never make it to seven-figures with holes and incompletions in the foundation of your business. These holes will become stumbling blocks as you attempt to expand and instead of scaling, you’ll have to spend your time rebuilding your foundation.
 
All of these factors will be the foundation for your business, no matter how much revenue you generate.

3. Focus on analytics

Although it’s possible to get lost in the minutia of data, analytics are critical for growing your business. Data-driven decisions are the only decisions you should be making.

This may interest you: Leveraging Data And Analytics To Make Purposeful Decisions 

Analytics will help you gather, process, and interpret the data you need to make good decisions for your company. Data also clarifies what your business is doing wrong and why your sales and other metrics are dropping.
 
Make sure to track the following at a minimum:
 
·  Website visitor data (location, demographics, page views, visit duration, referral source, etc.)
·  PPC ad data
·  Social media engagement
·  Sales data (including returns and exchanges)
·  Churn rate
·  Net Promoter Score (NPS)
·  Split test results
·  Customer support data (for instance, how long it takes to resolve each issue)
 
You can use this data to create personalized product suggestions, identify customer pain points, improve your customer support processes, and more. Successful seven-figure businesses put customers first and prioritise developing a positive customer experience.

4. Strengthen project management

Seven-figure companies have cohesive teams that meet their deadlines and deliver completed work to clients.
 
Do you meet your project goals on time? If not, it’s time to reassess your project management methods. If your projects routinely fall behind, either your goals are unrealistic, or your teams might be dysfunctional. It could be related to poor organisation.

Read more: 6 Tips on How to Be a Good Project Manager
 
To strengthen project management, you need to start with A-players. Once you have capable employees, you need a strong team leader. From there, you’ll need to establish a system for creating goals and milestones, assigning tasks, and team communication.

Your managers will need to be proficient in delegating tasks to team members based on their skills. Strong managers will delegate tasks even when they, themselves, can do a better job. A strong manager knows that some tasks don’t need to be completed to perfection to be efficient. Team members also need the ability to grow within their roles and many will develop an eye for perfection in the process.
 
The results from efficient delegation are far-reaching. Delegation keeps each person in his or her proper role and maintains the efficiency required to continue scaling to seven figures.
 
It might sound simple, but it takes great skill to manage a project efficiently. You can’t just give everyone a project management account and expect results. Your project manager will need to hold everyone to a high standard and create a workflow that keeps everyone on task.

5. Focus on systems

Next to data and your team, you need systems to move from six to seven figure profits in your business.
 
Systems establish a reliable, repeatable manner of accomplishing certain tasks. Systems take the guesswork out of your processes. For example, a naming convention is a system for naming files and folders in a way that makes those files easy to retrieve.
 
When you have a system for every process in your business, people can develop a routine and get in the flow. It’s easier to train people when you have systems, and you can get coverage from other departments more easily.
 
Systems also create a template for how things are done. When you’re ready to open more locations or start franchising, for example, repeatable systems allow you to decrease the time it takes for new locations to become fully operational. Systems are also a constant work in progress; as you develop better ways of doing things, you can revise your systems accordingly.
 
Ideally, you’ll constantly fine-tune your systems for efficiency. There’s always room for improvement. Eventually, you’ll discover the most efficient way of doing certain tasks.

Conclusion - Persistence will pay off

Image source

If you want a seven-figure business, you need the right growth strategy, but you also need persistence. As a leader, persistence is a demonstration of your resiliency through difficult times and will help you maintain morale within the company. You’ll undoubtedly run into roadblocks along the way, and perseverance will ensure you make it through.

Supplementary readings:

• 3 Issues To Avoid When Scaling Your Company
• Ask Roshan: What's Preventing SMEs From Scaling Up?

Be sure to check out the media below to enlighten yourself on how SMEs can scale their businesses:

If you want to read more on the topic above, there is a good compilation of articles in this amazing learning app called Necole. Necole is a state of the art learning platform that curates personalised learning just for you. **SPECIAL OFFER - Use this code ABETTERME and get a 5% discount on your subscription to Necole. To find out more about Necole or to subscribe, click here. This offer is valid only up to 31st January 2022.