Thread: How to Scale Your Business?

So I got asked an interesting question yesterday. How would I scale my current online business efforts if I had 100K? 250K? It kind of threw me because:
1 - I've never thought past having 5-10K money to reinvest in SEO, content creation, and PPC

2 - I have done it long enough now to know just because you do something at 100 or even 1K USD doesn't mean it will equivalently scale if you simply double the dollar amount. IE I have one PPC campaign that from 1-$50 a day I can predict the outcome. From $50 to $100 per day the ROI significantly decreases.

Any pointers out there or lessons learned from those of you that have been around for a while?
Cheers,
James

Purchase websites that already have proven traffic and revenue. Then improve and promote them.

Originally Posted by bogart

Purchase websites that already have proven traffic and revenue. Then improve and promote them.

That is very solid advise that I agree with 100%

Building and working on established sites will increase revenue

But always remember work every day (if you can) on the sites

Sites need to be maintained - that means - regular new content

Sites need to be promoted - work with your promotion budget

Originally Posted by bogart

Purchase websites that already have proven traffic and revenue. Then improve and promote them.

I think the question is how to scale a business, not to purchase a new one.

To scale a current business, or if you buy an new business and want to scale it. One way is to add more value/benefits to products/services to current customers for an increased payment relative to the valued added to the product/services. Finding new customers is much more costly than keeping the current happy

That is scaling. Getting more in return while lowering expenses.

~Mike

Originally Posted by Mike30

I think the question is how to scale a business, not to purchase a new one.

One way to grow the business is through acquistions. Scaling a business means to me to grow the business. Though yeah that's not exactly the definition of scaling a business.

Originally Posted by Mike30

To scale a current business, or if you buy an new business and want to scale it. One way is to add more value/benefits to products/services to current customers for an increased payment relative to the valued added to the product/services. Finding new customers is much more costly than keeping the current happy

I think that customer service, product management and pricing are marketing & sales functions.

Originally Posted by Mike30

That is scaling. Getting more in return while lowering expenses.

We have to ask if the business is scalable; Will the increase in resources lead to a propotional gain in performance?

Scalability isn't so much an increase is resources. But a process including procedure and manuals to have the system to grow.

Originally Posted by bogart

We have to ask if the business is scalable; Will the increase in resources lead to a propotional gain in performance?

Scalability isn't so much an increase is resources. But a process including procedure and manuals to have the system to grow.

Yeah, this is what I'm wrestling with now. How to systematically show the point that ROI diminishes per web property when the investment is applied across the gamut of content production, services, marketing, etc.

If anything, its a good exercise to take a step back and look at the big picture for all of the web efforts I undertake to properly align to a strategy that the lower level efforts are contributing towards.

Thanks to all for the good info.
Cheers,
James

Originally Posted by javanx3d

Yeah, this is what I'm wrestling with now. How to systematically show the point that ROI diminishes per web property when the investment is applied across the gamut of content production, services, marketing, etc.

The Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns shows us that at some point the marginal return will be less as more new workers and web properties etc are added.

Originally Posted by javanx3d

If anything, its a good exercise to take a step back and look at the big picture for all of the web efforts I undertake to properly align to a strategy that the lower level efforts are contributing towards.

It's easier to make a small-scale business efficient as much of the bureaucracy is needed. Bureaucracy costs money and causes inefficiency.

small-scale business is easier to manage and its more open to innovations

Originally Posted by k.saranda

small-scale business is easier to manage and its more open to innovations

This is true that a small business is easier to manage. However, scalability is still required to take on more business and get a proportional return on the investment. Another consideration is that a business that is unable to scale is doomed to "failure" at some point.

The key to scalability is infrastructure. That could mean building better software systems to manage growth or it could mean hiring more people.

If you have a $10K business and you want to grow it to $100k, you must first consider what you will need to manage the business once it reaches $100k. If you do not plan properly, you will create bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

For example, you could plan to acquire 100 new web sites with proven traffic and revenue, but if you cannot manage and promote those web sites properly, you will probably lose a lot of potential business and miss a lot of opportunities to maximize revenue.