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There are many sales and marketing tools out there for small and medium businesses to go from start-up to scale-up . Simon Philips , CEO and founder of ScaleUp Capital , offers eight simple steps on how to manage growth and how to shape the packaging , pricing , delivery and sale of the product or service so that the revenues are recurring by nature .

T ISN ’ T EASY starting a new

Taking a start-up to scale-up is the next stage for those that have overcome the initial challenges . The next stage of growth is where the metric for success is accelerating and maintaining profitable revenue growth . The risks and challenges change . It isn ’ t about the success of the launch anymore ; it is about creating a sustainable and scalable model throughout your business .

Scaling up are the adolescent years when a business will go through more change than at any other time . At the end of the scale-up phase , you will have a business that is robust and resilient , growing fast enough to reach escape velocity and with enough critical mass to be profitable .

The name we give to businesses that are entering this scale-up phase is ‘ scalers ’. Our experience has been with digital B2B businesses , but many of these lessons are applicable to businesses in other sectors .

Small window of opportunity to become a ‘ role model scaler ’

A role model scaler has a simple pitch that convinces large numbers of customers to buy their killer product or service which solves a big and painful problem and keeps these customers for the long-term .

Role model scalers will have the metrics to prove it . They will have attractive unit economics with a Customer Lifetime Value ( LTV )/ Customer Acquisition Cost ( CAC ) well more than 3x . The very best are > 10 , and some real stars can be > 25 or even > 100 . They will have a scalable model for both customer acquisition and product / service deployment , meaning they can readily crank the handle to do both in much higher volumes . There will be enough customers in their addressable market ( TAM ) to enable them to build a big business . Enough of these target customers will be greenfield , meaning they will not have a comparable competitive solution already . Preferably comparable competitors will be few and far between , or at least not too far ahead . In ideal situations , the TAM is way larger than

THE SCALE- UP PHASE IS A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY TO SHAPE YOUR BUSINESS TO BE AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO THIS ROLE MODEL WHILE YOU ARE STILL SMALL ENOUGH TO BE AGILE AND NIMBLE .