How To Create The Foundation To Scale
Have you been thinking about scaling your business recently? Or maybe what the best way to approach it could be? Well this blog post, we share with you all how you can create the perfect foundation to successfully scale your business and increase your sales.
What does it mean to create “a solid foundation”? If we used an analogy to put it, it’s like if you’re building a house — you want your home to be built on solid land with the right structural comments in place. You don’t want to build your house on quicksand because it will obviously start to crumble down and fall apart. In your case, having a solid foundation means building up your business thoughtfully and with structural components that will allow you to scale and grow it without it crashing down and the effort, you put into it being for nothing. Having said this, don’t freak out! We got you covered with the key foundational items that our successfully scaled slow fashion clients had in place and ways to assess which parts of your foundation are weaker than others.
Step #1: Do You Know What Your End Goal Is And Where It Is You’re Going? What Is Your ‘Why?’
This is extremely important because if you don’t have an end goal in mind or any idea as to where you’re going with your business, you won’t be able to achieve anything. This could include knowing your ideal annual revenue goal, what you want to do with your business long-term (i.e. run it forever or eventually sell it), etc. I have mentioned this point a lot in the past as well because knowing your ‘why’ can help you in times of difficulties or when you run into obstacles that may be discouraging. Having a strong understanding of your end goal and the reasoning behind starting your entrepreneurial journey will be the rock in getting you through those challenges and hard days. For example, Recloseted’s mission is to right the harmful fashion industry and we always keep this in mind to remind us why we do what we do and our end goal keeps us motivated to keep pushing forward!
Step #2: Do You Know Who Your Ideal Customer Is — Inside and Out?
If you don’t already have a detailed persona made for your business' ideal customer, it’s time to do that right away. This is crucial as you grow and scale because you might start to lose touch with him/her/them. You always need to remember that you are in the business of serving and helping your ideal customers and you should never forget that! He/she/they will be the biggest supporter of your business and will help you by sharing their love for your company with their network, purchasing your products, and more!
Step #3: Does Your Product Solve Problems For Your Customers and Their Explicit Needs?
These days, people don’t just buy junk– they need to buy something that they find value in and that will help them solve their problems or pains. Therefore, we can’t just make things for the sake of making things. You need to be very thoughtful and mindful of creating products that people are missing and need in their lives. For example, a client of ours made wrinkle-resistant workwear pieces that could transition from a day look to a night look. Having this multi-functional clothing line really worked for our client and she could effortlessly sell her items because her ideal customers — corporate working women were in desperate search of something just like that.
Step #4: Are You Intimately Aware Of Your Business’ Financial Situation and Projections?
As you grow and scale your business, you have to be aware of how much money is coming in and out of your business as well as how much you have leftover to bring to the bank. If you need to invest in adding more team members, switching production partners, adding new designs, etc. you must know what the financial situation of your business is in order to do all of that. Even if you aren’t too familiar or comfortable with numbers, it’s necessary to start now and dig deep into the nitty-gritty finances and be mindful of your earnings and spending!
Step #5: Do You Have A Plan Developed For When Things ‘Break’ In Your Business Because You’re Scaling?
Scaling your business will inevitably lead to pains and challenges. Things will “break” or fall apart and it’ll be stressful — therefore having a plan in advance and trying to be proactive as much as possible versus reactive in those difficult situations will be extremely helpful to you. For example, one of our clients scaled their business and couldn’t just rely on her original production partner anymore. She needed to find another partner that could keep up with demands and she needed to figure out a fabric situation as well. By preparing for these things in advance you can avoid feeling stressed out or overwhelmed while scaling — it’s definitely a challenging process at times but you can absolutely do it!
If you’re planning to take your business to the next level and scale, focus on these five foundation items that we have laid out for you. Zone in on each of these and identify what you may be succeeding in or lacking in and work on building up and nailing down those areas that need improvement. Growing and scaling your business is one of the most exciting times in a slow fashion founder’s journey. A lot of the time our clients start a label because they genuinely want to make a positive difference in our world and create sustainable pieces — often starting off as a bit of a passion project for them. Gradually, it slowly blossoms into a full-fledged business upon launching, making more sales, reaching their ideal customer base, etc. and scaling it just allows them to take it to the next level!
