intelligent

NEW SKILLS AND

NEW PEOPLE ARE NEEDED TO BUILD OUT THE MANAGEMENT

TEAM WHICH CAN IMPLEMENT

THE SYSTEMS ,

PROCESSES AND GOVERNANCE TO ENABLE THE

BUSINESS TO CHANGE GEAR . the actual current market size , indicating that current market penetration is very low , and the bulk of the market is unaddressed greenfield .

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 . Once the business infrastructure is in place , it is much harder and more costly to pivot and reshape it so it ’ s important to get this right early on .

We have witnessed business after business take on their scaling ambitions . But to do it right , and to ensure that role model status , there are eight simple steps we recommend in the process , they include :

Ensure you have a deep and accurate understanding of customers and the market because you will be making your big bets and investments on the back of it . Startups are often characterised by a trial and error exploratory hunt for business and you may have stumbled across different target customers and user cases . List these out and profile them very clearly and specifically . If you don ’ t have all the information , then conduct customer and market research to plug the gaps .

Focus on the best user cases where you are solving big and painful problems that deliver outcomes for customers that are far more valuable than the cost . Check there are enough customers out there with these user cases for you to build a large enough business . Ensure the market isn ’ t overcrowded with competitors and has sufficient greenfield opportunity . This is the sweet spot to laser in on .

Develop and build out your product or service to be the best in the market , at least in a few crucial ways that enough of these target customers really care about .

Shape the packaging , pricing , delivery and sale of the product or service so that the revenues are recurring by nature – subscription , SAAS , managed services , long-term contracts , high switching costs .

Otherwise , ensure it is an ad-hoc purchase which is inherently designed to encourage customers to come back time and time again .

Refine the elevator pitch until it is simple to the point where anyone can pitch it and immediately understand it .

Build a small customer acquisition machine to make the pitch in large enough volumes to people with the right user cases . You are unlikely to get this right first time so prepare for trial and error , focusing on pace and rigour . Measure the effectiveness of each iteration of the machine by calculating the LTV and the CAC and the underlying KPIs which drive these . Be scientific . Keep refining until it is optimised . This will avoid wasted time and money further down the track .

Once optimised , build up the customer acquisition machine . Hire more salespeople . Add more partners . Spend more on lead generation . Build the machine and keep measuring your metrics to ensure they remain strong . If you haven ’ t successfully completed earlier steps , then you may see a drop in the LTV / CAC as you try to scale things up . If it drops too far then you will need to circle back