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Starting a business is hard work. Scaling a business on the other hand, is really hard work. Statistics show that only 3 out of 10 startups are in business after five years. Why is it so few that survive their own business model, and what does it really take to scale a business?
Many startups would agree that the answer is capital. It would probably help solve many short term pains. However, working with many different scaleups in different markets, we see that creating a strategic plan for your business growth is way more important than just capital alone. Without a plan, you won’t spend your capital the right way. There are many strategic solutions out there that can help you structure your growth plan, and they all go under a variety of fancy names. At Epicenter, we name them Scaleup labs. Let us talk you through an example of a scaleup lab to show you what it is all about, and how it can help you scale your business.
“Our key takeaway as a professional business was to shift our business mindset from a startup mindset to a scaleup mindset. “
Andreas Bengtsson, SocialView
SocialView is a social media agency, founded by CEO and Co-Founder Andreas Bengtsson back in 2014. In 2019 the company was nominated for the Swedish ‘DI Gasell’ award for being one of Sweden’s fastest growing companies in 2019. Among other achievements, they have been able to double their revenue over the past four years. In 2017, SocialView took part in a scaleup lab at Epicenter Stockholm, with our partners Result.
– Going through the scaleup lab helped us look at our company more outside in. We were able to rebuild our internal business culture and increased our own ambitions, Bengtsson says in an interview with Epicenter. He also mentions that a very important aspect has been to meet other companies in the same phase, where building a professional organization and growing teams, customers and partners without pains were key targets for all. – Being able to learn from each other, being inspired to think in a new direction, stretching our goals and reaching new barriers were really important in that phase. Also having the professional support from serial entrepreneurs at Result, that had a 100 percent external view on our company, strategy and structure were highly valuable. They made us realize that we had to move our business mindset from a startup mindset to a scaleup mindset.
Bengtsson would highly recommend other entrepreneurs like himself, to find similar opportunities. – Yes, we would recommend companies looking to scale their business to join a scaleup lab. It has helped us increase our ambitions, work more strategically towards our goals and find ways to reach those goals through professional tools, a network of professional partners and becoming a more professional partner for our clients.
We would like to highlight three important factors for scaling your company the right way, fast enough and with quality.
Some scaleups might question why you should invest in getting external help, when you have hired a lot of internal talent as well as acquired a lot of investors with experience and a fantastic business network?
In our opinion, the question answers itself through our mentioned factors. Work with externals, that don’t have a personal stake in your company. Make sure to measure the process, to increase and improve your understanding of the created value. And build an even stronger network, with people you don’t already have access to.
If you want to hear more about our Scaleup labs, reach out to us with an email and we will arrange a talk on how we can help you with your business growth and innovation.
