Three tips for scaling your start-up

Maintain The Status Quo

It might be that you’re comfortable and happy with your business operations just as they are right now. Perhaps you have no desire to increase production or sales. If you’re a sole trader then you may not have capacity or the resource. In this case, then a focus on your profitability make sense. Many start-ups follow a personal passion and as such the time it takes to service clients or produce items for sale is considered pleasure, not business. But remember, time is money and that you’re running a business and not a hobby. Keep note of the hours you spend and use this to inform your pricing structures. Business admin is another area that can suck up time into a void. If you find yourself spending too long on the admin side of things and you’re struggling to deliver orders or projects, consider bringing on board some business support.

Skilled individuals are often available for freelance admin work - particularly parents looking to balance a job with childcare. Look at the variety of options available to you including bringing someone on-board by the hour or for a couple of days a week. You’ll find this can free you up to concentrate on other elements of the business.

Look for progress not perfection and celebrate the milestones as you secure them.

Dust off your business plan

When you launched the business, you’re likely to have put together an awesome business plan. Now is the time to dig it out and build in the next phase of activity. Challenge your performance to date. What can you do differently? What can you do better? What doesn’t work for you? Good iteration lies at the heart of any business. Look for progress not perfection and celebrate the milestones as you secure them.  Once you’ve identified areas for growth, make a plan - an achievable plan with realistic goals.

Build Knowledge & Networks

The Government is continuously rolling out projects and initiatives to support start-ups and SMEs. The challenge is to navigate through these complicated opportunities to understand what is relevant for you and what isn’t. A plethora of advice is available out there and is often overlooked. So before you bring on board consultants, maximise any resources that you can. Local Chambers of Commerce, Regional Growth Hubs, industry specific trade bodies, and organisations such as the Federation of Small Businesses, will have the latest insights and information available to help you build resilience into your business. Use them!

Get A Finance Injection

If you’re looking to scale production or servicing, you’re likely to need additional investment in the form of infrastructure, people, equipment or marketing.

If you’ve got a good relationship with existing investors or lenders, then it makes sense to approach them for further cash. However, for some start-ups this is neither appropriate or desirable. Instead, it is necessary to expand the network and look elsewhere. Thankfully, and in spite of the doom and gloom which abounds, opportunities remain to secure funding for SMEs. From bank loans and private investment to grants and crowdfunding, finance can be accessed from a variety of sources.

But how do you demonstrate your ability to repay the loan, or secure the best rates available, with only 18 months in business? Traditional methods used by lenders to assess risk tends to rely on publicly available Companies House data; or time-consuming manual application and review processes. The answer is not complicated. The solution lies in a new platform developed specifically for SMEs which provides a real-time business credit score to lenders.

In the same way that consumer credit reference agencies identify the credit worthiness of an individual, the business credit score gives lenders the information they need to make informed decisions on the rates and risks of lending to you. Using ‘Open Banking’ data provided by your bank and our risk calculations model, you are issued with a ‘badge’ which rates your business credit score and that is updated as soon as your risk profile adjusts.

Unsurprisingly, the power of this aggregated data and its validation from the finance sector is set to transform lending to start-ups and SMEs in coming months and years.  To find out more about how you can use your business credit score to unlock funding for your business read more on www.creditpassport.com.