Every business leader wants to scale. That growth might look like more volume and revenue from your existing physical footprint. It might be new locations. It might be additional distribution channels. It might be new product or service offerings. Whatever it is, it requires you answer these three questions in the affirmative.

Do current and potential customers understand the value surplus?

You most likely have a loyal band of early adopters who purchase from you regularly. They feel good about spending their money with you. The utility or enjoyment they derive from your product far exceeds the purchase price. Often times, founders get stuck on some ethereal idea that inspired them to found the business, like you buy one and we’ll donate one – think Tom’s shoes or Bombas socks. They spend lots of early attention capital on communicating their charitable component. And that probably put them on the radar screen for their early adopters. Here’s the deal – when you’re ready to scale, that has to take a back seat to a meaningful value surplus. The Early Majority and, even more so, the Late Majority shopping for socks want really good socks. Everything else is subordinate.

Can I deliver every copy of the product with consistent quality and customer experience?

Early on, every product or service is delivered personally by or at least under the watchful eye of the founder. The pre-sale experience, the customer onboarding, the product itself, the sales transaction, and all follow up is a collection of carefully curated words and actions that made customers take notice and come back for more. To scale, that delivery has to be systematized so it looks like the original product or experience (or is even better) and can be produced and delivered by someone else. Processes must be in place so that copy 10 is produced and has the same quality as copy 10,000. The processes must also ensure that those copies are delivered with all the care of the first copy delivered by the founder. There are also implications here for upstream suppliers.

Am I surrounded with people who understand what I’m trying to build, understand the best way to build it, and share in the benefits of scaling?

Depending on your industry, it’s possible your product or service is ultimately delivered by the lowest-paid, least-experienced person in your organization, Founders that have somehow been oblivious to that fact have paid the price. Even if that’s not the case in your industry, every scaling equation is about people. Organizations that scale successfully hire people who share the organization’s core values, are steeped in the organization’s healthy culture, leverage the expertise built into the organization’s processes, feel empowered to look for ways to improve the processes, and share in the benefits of scaling (being rewarded with more responsibility, mastering new valuable skills, sharing in the monetary rewards). One bonus insight on this point – scaling that works requires the hiring of key leadership personnel who think differently than the founder. They must share the core values, but they must solve problems and evaluate opportunities differently from the other leaders already on board.