Scaling Up: How A Few Companies Make It...and W...
Key Advantages: Scaling Up offers companies tools that help executives free their time to focus on growing their business as employees align to execute the growth plan. Coaching helps implementation, learning makes worldwide resources available, Scaling Up Scoreboard software keeps tabs on alignment and accountability, and summit events give companies insight and inspiration.
For this reason, accessing a peer-to-peer support network is critical for companies at the scaleup stage. Connecting with people who are experiencing the same challenges is invaluable; it not only makes business sense, but it also can be a much-needed source of emotional support and reassurance for high-achieving founders and executives during a period of massive change.
Alumni of the Upscale programme include Bloom & Wild and Seedrs, so the prestige is high and the possibilities even higher. The programme plays host to the unicorns of tomorrow and offers scaleup founders and their leadership teams access to a valuable network of founders and peer support which they can use to share, solve and predict some of the biggest barriers scaling companies face at this critical inflection point of the journey.
Do you have a fear of hiring? I once heard an InterNACHI member say, "At this point, I feel that I really can't afford to hire help." If this is something you could imagine yourself saying, my response would be the following: Notice your use of the word "feel"? Your employees shouldn't cost you anything. I employ 110 people in a dozen different companies and non-profit organizations. None of them has a single employee that costs their operation a penny. Every one of my employees generates black ink.So, maybe what you meant to say is, "I don't have the capital to cover their first few paychecks until they begin to bring in more money than they cost to employ." So, it's a lack of temporary cash flow... or is it?Or, maybe what you really meant to say is, "I have the capital to cover their first few paychecks until they bring in more money than they cost to employ, but I won't hire them. I won't hire them because unless an employee can actually hand me a certain amount of cash at the end of the day that is greater than what I paid him/her that day, my brain won't let me attribute the additional profits indirectly generated by that employee's efforts to that particular employee, so I only focus on what I'm paying the employee, and not what the employee is paying me, indirectly, by making my company more profitable." So, it's a lack of basic business acumen then... or is it?Or, maybe what you really, really meant to say is, "I have the capital to cover their first few paychecks until they bring in more money than they cost to employ. And I realize that, although an employee might not actually hand me a certain amount of cash at the end of the day that is greater than what I paid him/her that day, I do attribute the additional profits indirectly generated by that employee's efforts to that particular employee. So, I don't focus on what I'm paying the employee but, rather, on what the employee is paying me, indirectly, by making my company more profitable. However, I don't think I will be able to accurately quantify the profits generated indirectly by the employee, and that keeps me from hiring." So, it's a lack of financial analysis skills then... or is it?Or, maybe what you really, really, really meant to say is, "I earn enough to pay my bills. My spouse has a steady job. Between the two of us, we live comfortably and can even afford a few luxuries. But I'm afraid. I'm afraid of being poor, so I work hard and take few risks. I'm afraid of being rich, so I don't hire because hiring is a risk. If I were going to hire someone, I would be afraid to hire someone much different than me, or someone much more confident than me, or someone much smarter than me." So, it's a problem dealing with your own fears then.Look, everyone is afraid. It's a natural, useful human