In last week’s blog, I asked the question, can your business run without you?

If you could not answer “yes” to that question, that’s okay!  Most entrepreneurs and small business owners cannot answer “yes”.  Many small business owners end up being stuck and trapped to some degree in their business.  They are the bottleneck, and they are the ones that, many times, have a hard time letting go of the reins of the business and handing them over to other people.

As discussed last week, these business owners are stuck in the GROW phase of business.  GROW stands for grind, repeat, operate, and work.  This week we will discuss some practical tips to help you to exit the GROW phase and begin to SCALE your business.

I struggled with exiting the GROW phase of business for many years.  I was (and still am) a control freak; I like things done a particular way, and I am hard on myself and others.  These were just a few attributes that, although can be beneficial for many reasons, hindered my ability to SCALE the business.

SCALE is another acronym that stand for: Systems. Confidence. Accountability. Leverage. Excellent execution.

Let’s dive into to each of the components of SCALE and how they practically apply to your business.

Systems.  For many small business owners, the operations of the business are like stories being passed along at the campfire.  The owner knows 100% of every piece of the business and how it operates. However, they have not been documented into implementable, repeatable and learnable systems for others to follow.  Does this sound familiar? 

If so, here are a few tips.  As you operate in your business, stop every 30 minutes to document what you did.  Take clear notes of all the actionable steps in your business that make it happen.

Remember, there are 4 basic components to business.  Marketing, Sales, Delivery, Collection.  As you document what you are doing, take note of what you love to do, what you are excellent at, and what you hate to do and are not so good at.  If you could spend 100% of your time in the business doing one of the four things, what would it be? 

Remember that the exact step-by-step and play-by-play of every piece of your business must be documented so simply that a third grader can understand and execute on it.  This breakdown can be written, and many times I have also seen it in video format.

If you are not doing this already, make time to capture and document the daily operations of your business that allow it to operate.

Confidence. You are confident in your skills and abilities.  Are you confident in the skills and abilities of your team?  If not, why?  Having confidence will allow you to delegate to others more easily on your team.  Your belief in your team will also continue to build their confidence and desire to take the reins.  Look at your team members and ask yourself, “On a scale of 1-10, how confident am I in their capabilities?”  If you are less that 8, ask yourself why.

Accountability.  Once you have explained and documented systems, and have a team you are confident in, it is time to let them get to work.  Let them work, let them call the shots, let them make decisions, and let them do their jobs.  A big part of your role in the SCALED phase is giving your team clear direction and job description (role), and then giving them the space and confidence to operate in that role (rope). 

By the way, the role and rope analogy is from Matt Dahlstrom’s book BLOOM.  Hold your team accountable to making calls, and taking action, and celebrate them for it, even if they make the wrong call.  One huge mistake I made here was I would give my team the space to make decisions, then question every decision they made.  I effectively hung them with their own rope, wrecked their confidence, and made them doubt themselves and their capabilities. 

Leverage.  In Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad , he explains that being self-employed is still exchanging time for money.  Maybe you were employed and quit your job because you hate your boss, only to find yourself working for a new boss (YOU) that you may dislike even more.  To jump the gap from self-employed, or solopreneur, to business owner, requires leverage.  Leverage means you utilize the resources of others.  This is where people and building an amazing team comes in.  Who is on your team?  How are you leveraging their skills, passions, and abilities to bring more value to your company, to those you serve, and to your bottom line?

Excellent execution.  So may business owners are afraid to let go and turn things over to others because things will not be “perfect”.  Remember, nobody is perfect; not you, not your team.  Focus on excellence and excellent execution.  This means taking action, making decisions, and focusing on improving every single day.  Excellence is simply showing up as a better version of yourself than you were today and yesterday, and showing up tomorrow better than today.  Don’t get stuck trying to attain something that is impossible to achieve.

Remember that the common theme here is allowing and believing in others to run the important aspects of your business.  It is all about delegation with tasks, trust, and time.  As you begin to do this, you will see where your team is strong and solid.  You will also see where they need help and coaching.  This will become your focus as you continue to advance your business.  Please know that the SCALE phase takes time and can be a frustrating phase of business.  There will be days you just want to go back to BUILD.  You will be frustrated things are not moving as fast as you like or as well as “you could do it all by yourself”.  But please trust me when I tell you, once you begin to figure this phase out just a little bit, you will be able to step away and take a well-deserved vacation while your team executes for you.

This is an article I wrote years ago in INC Magazine where I spoke more about this topic.  Click here to take a read.

For more free tools on how to grow your business and advance your leadership, click here.