5 Strategies To Sustainably Grow & Scale A Services Business
My company Pure SEO is about to turn 10. What started out on the 29th October 2009 as a one-man band is now a company that employs more than 60 people and spans three countries.
Services businesses; ones that trade time for money, are notoriously difficult to scale effectively and profitably. Pure SEO has managed to scale successfully and to continually provide a better product to our customers every year. Here are 5 strategies that have been fundamental in that growth:
1. Systems
Without solid, robust systems it is simply impossible to scale. I remember when we had a team of 6 and 50 clients. All the data was in my head (not scalable at all!) and mistakes started to creep in. To rectify that, I brought in a lady who had been successful at creating systems and processes in other companies. When I brought her in, she was General Manager at a publicly listed company. I couldn’t really afford her at the time, however in hindsight I couldn’t afford not to bring her in. Many of the systems and process she brought in are still in place today. Without good systems and processes, you cannot scale.
2. Inefficiencies
There were several areas in our business that were extremely inefficient. The biggest one was our client reporting. It was a hugely time-consuming process which took 3 staff members a full week to complete; the customers didn’t have a clue about the effort that went into them. Having identified this inefficacy, we developed a cloud-based reporting system that now takes 1 person 24 hours to complete… with 4 times as many clients. Find the inefficiencies in your business and work out how to fix them properly.
3. Innovate
Invest in your product/service. Take time to ensure you are providing the best service in your market and iterate and keep improving. We have a Head of Product, his job is to focus on product improvements and nothing else. This is totally invaluable and allows us to confidently tell customers they are dealing with the best.
4. Global Economy
We have 15 full time staff in Manila. Several used to work for and were trained up by Google. Utilising the systems, processes and software we have built, we are able to scale our workforce at a fraction of the cost of doing so locally. Think globally from day 1 if you can.
5. Delegate
The ability to delegate to others is key to scaling. A CEO is often the bottleneck in their business. You cannot possibly be good at everything, find out your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on your strengths and fill your weaknesses with people who consider those attributes their strengths.
I love the idea of scaling and I think about it all the time (one of my strengths!). Over the past decade, I have learnt to foster people’s strengths. It is natural to spend time and effort helping the wort performers in your business, this has the unintended consequence of neglecting the best performers. To be successful, much like a sports coach, it is beneficial to spend the time and effort improving your best people and constantly looking to improve them.