Transformation of Your Business Never Stops

Many of us are familiar with the story of Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, who was condemned to eternally pushing a boulder up a hill—only to watch it roll back down. Sometimes scaling up your business feels that way. You work on transforming your business—only to have to do it all over again. There’s a difference, however, between what you’re doing as a business leader and what Sisyphus was doing. You could argue that Sisyphus never made any progress. It was exactly the same routine over and over. In business, however, transformation is a never-ending process.

Pushing That Boulder Up the Hill is a Good Thing

Repeatedly having to change the way you operate is actually a good thing, because the world around you is ever-changing as well. You have to keep changing, keep growing, keep learning and adapting. Scaling up isn’t just about getting bigger. It’s about getting better. It’s about improving your business to operate at a higher level.

As a business coach, I work with individuals and teams to transform their businesses (and themselves) so that they can operate at a whole different level. We focus on key areas that require change if the company is going to scale up. Those include: Leadership, vision, strategy, execution, cash, and communication.

There is No Growth Without Change

I’ve been privileged to observe clients dramatically change the way they do things in each of those areas. And those changes enable them to function at a level they hadn’t previously experienced. But it doesn’t stop there. Companies that want to continue to grow have to keep transforming themselves. Frankly, there is no growth without change. Let’s look at the key areas I mentioned above as examples.

Leadership

The leadership skills required to successfully run a company with $1 million in revenues are dramatically different than the skills required to run a $5 million company. You’re required to deal with different issues and levels of complexity. And you don’t get there overnight. And if you want to take the company to $10 million, that requires yet another level of capability. The scale of the challenges is vastly different. If you don’t continually grow as a leader, you won’t be able to grow your company.

Vision

Sometimes business people think that corporate visions are cast in stone. And while your vision needs to be clear, you may need to revisit it and even revise it if it no longer fits the market. Nobody today wants to be the leading manufacturer of VHS recorders. That market is gone.

Strategy

The strategies you use to reach a local market aren’t going to work if you’re trying to expand to a regional or even a national market. The scale is completely different. The way you need to relate to distributors is different. That’s why you need to continually review your strategy.

Execution

The processes you use to execute your strategy also have to change and grow. There are physical and time limitations you will have to deal with. It’s not simply a matter of working harder—you have to learn to work smarter, and that means learning to do things differently.

Cash

How you handle your cash flow is dramatically different as you grow. It’s not just the amount of money you deal with that is different. It’s also the pace at which money has to flow. The systems that worked for a $500,000 company won’t cut it for a $5 million company.

Communication

The way you pass on information within a larger company is much different than the way you can do it with a small company. Casual hallway meetings and poking your head in someone’s office may work in a small business environment, but they will cause chaos in a bigger company.

Getting There Is Half the Fun

If you think the ideas of transformation and scaling up sound like a lot of work, you’re right. But as a business coach who has helped companies make this transition, I can tell you that it’s also invigorating and exciting. It requires discipline and commitment but getting there is half the fun!

If you’re looking for help in transforming your company so that you can scale it up and operate at a different level, click on the “Are We A Good Fit” button below. We can schedule a call to explore whether we’re a good fit for one another when it comes to pushing that boulder up the mountain.