WHAT IS SCALE?

"a successful business is one which is replicable at the same or more level of success given the resources"

For the creative starting out, the goal is both self-expression and building a successful sustainable business that can replicate the creatives skill and talent as many as possible. While these goals may seem different or separate, they are actually intertwined. There is no success in a business without the service or product being delivered excellently and delivering excellently is the bedrock of a successful business.

I speak today about scale because while most people understand to start businesses, it takes a different set of skills to run and scale businesses. The words of Vusi come to mind where he differentiated between a founder and a CEO. A founder starts up a business, he generally has an idea that can change the world or cause a shift in the industry. This idea, however great, needs to executed right for it to bring to reality the mind of the founder. While the skills needed may be learnt, the most successful people in the world understand that hiring the individual with the skills might be a better, faster and more efficient way to achieve scale. Dangote started a couple of companies but every single one has a CEO who runs the business as it is best ran. Companies like Apple, PepsiCo and a host of others also have this as their set up.

What does this mean for the creative entrepreneur?

We might be better off being a staff in the company or business we started than trying to run the business. While starting the business, the founder has a dream or a big picture idea and this idea if executed right can be great. However, most creatives become obsessed with creating products and services that they stop seeing the bigger picture. When this happens, the creative is much better served when someone who has a good grasp of business management comes in to help see how much of the bigger picture still is in play. This person doesn’t have to take over the business or be permanently employed. They just need to look at your business, test it against business principles and see if you are on the right track.

Sometimes these evaluations will cause the creative to be shown his flaws and how he might be making wrong business moves. The creative should do well to keep in mind that this isn’t an attack on himself or his business but rather a way to save the business and make it sustainable. The goal as always is to make a success of the business.

Recently, I allowed an older colleague of mine to run a "stress test" on my business (I failed this stress test) and the revelations I got from it was not only enlightening, it helped to determine my plans and actions for the next quarter and set better goals for the year.

My proposal to you is to layout your business model and allow a more experienced individual in your field to do some form of consultation on your business model to see if that model can scale. If the current model can scale, its best to execute on it immediately but if it cannot, you need to adjust as necessary and fast.

Next week, we will discuss on what scaling means for different business models. And also are you an entrepreneur?