Major Scaling !Challenges

By Sunil Jagani

Scaling !before !it’s time• Don’t scale before you

can work out the errors still present in the product !

• Don’t increase growth and production before finding out who your customers actually are!

• If you try to scale before resolving these issues, your company won’t scale

Working with !the wrong people

• It might be easy to accept differences early on, but these represent long-term relationships!

• Any unresolved issues are guaranteed to come back to haunt you!

• If you can, hire people who have experience with scaling, but don’t forget that culture fit is just as important as competence

Not focusing on long-term demand

• Sales and marketing are merely short-term initiatives!

• Creating a strong buyer market and building long-term demand is just as important to your overall success

Competing on price• Competing on price often seriously

hurts both profit and quality!• Competing on quality, ingenuity

and customer service works a lot better!

• Selling to your customers on the value you provide lets you keep prices reasonable.

Not changing !management !styles

• Style of management and leadership changes with the size of a company!

• A flat structure that worked well with 50 people won’t work well with 250.

Ignoring issues !that pop up• Don’t convince

yourself that things are okay when they aren’t!

• You need to be prepared to confront issues head on to avoid long-term damage to your company

Forgetting !to trim !the fat

• As your company grows, certain aspects, employees and departments might not be relevant any more !

• Dealing with these issues that aren’t working is an important part towards scaling