When businesses are covered in the media, often there is a lot of focus on the initial idea, the genesis moment. Then they almost brush over the middle part – the scaling up part – and arrive at how big and awesome the business is today. It makes for a fun read or in the case of a movie or show an entertaining watch, but it’s also a missed opportunity. The middle part – the scaling up part is where so many small business owners get stuck. It’s the part so many of us need more guidance with and so we wanted to get conversations going on the topic of scaling up.

Tomer Yotam

Scaling Up: 20 Years of Mastering Total Security Over the last two decades, I’ve learned that scaling a successful service business isn’t just about growth—it’s about depth. My journey from a local technician to a comprehensive security specialist was built on one principle: Total Mastery. The Middle Phase: Diversification The most critical part of my story was the decision to bridge the gap between sectors. Read More>>

Benita Cooper

When I started Benita Cooper Design, I was younger and could only see what was right in front of me. I did not have a master plan to scale. I was focused on doing the work well, one project at a time. Read More>>

Mike Byer

From my perspective as Executive Director of Operation Song, the idea of “overnight success” could not be further from the truth. What people see today, thousands of songs written with veterans across the country, strong corporate partners, and national visibility, is the result of years of disciplined work, experimentation, and a lot of lessons learned the hard way. Read More>>

Kaitlyn Kissel

We planned a 10 month run on our first bed and breakfast, The Doc’s Inn, to research clientele and find out if we had a viable business model/enough demand for our product. When our little inn grew almost 10 fold, I started to pay attention to this as a primary job/potential long term business. Read More>>

Natalia Montano

People sometimes look at Aguamarina today and say something like, “Wow, that school grew so fast.” I always smile when I hear that. Because if Aguamarina is an “overnight success,” then it was a very long night. The truth is that Aguamarina was never built overnight. Read More>>

Cathy Pierce

Scaling my business happened gradually and was built on relationships rather than traditional marketing. Over nearly twenty years in the fitness industry, I’ve learned that trust and community are far more powerful than advertising. Early in my career, I taught classes and trained clients at as many as five different gyms and studios while raising four young children at home. Read More>>

Ely Hemnes

Here’s a strong, article-ready response in your voice and aligned with how you think about growth, systems, and storytelling: ⸻ Most people assume growth happens in a moment. For us, it was a series of very unglamorous, very intentional decisions made over nearly a decade. We started as a small, scrappy production company taking on anything we could to build momentum. Read More>>

Shontavia Young

Scaling up didn’t happen overnight for me. From the outside, people often see the hosting, the networking, and the growing brand and assume everything came together quickly. In reality, the biggest growth happened during the middle stages the time when I was learning, observing, and figuring out how to turn my personality and passion into something purposeful. Read More>>

LaCarey Dickerson

For me, growth began at the intersection of opportunity and preparation. I started building my business through social media, but quickly encountered a series of roadblocks. Early on, it felt as though I had hit a ceiling. I wasn’t generating the level of sales, visibility, or engagement I knew was possible. Read More>>

Angela Hollowell-Pearl

There’s something interesting about music. The songs that sound effortless usually required the most careful arrangement. Every instrument has its place. Every note supports the whole. Scaling a business works the same way. When people look at what we’ve built today—our programs, our technology, the women building thriving businesses—they sometimes assume the growth happened quickly. Read More>>