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.

Jason Miller

Companies grow and scale because they put in the work. The key to scaling any company is taking it through the proper procedures that allow it to scale. You have to create and optimize a process that works for you, your customers and your Niche. For my company it’s pretty end to end and starts with acquisition and ends with making every customer your biggest cheerleader. Read more>>

Kristy Gayton

There was no overnight “success”. There was no one thing that allowed expansion, and scaling up also can be interpreted in different ways. What are you looking to scale? Impact? Freedom? Finances? Net profit? Love? The cool thing about life is we all have the ability to make those choices. I have been in seasons of aligned business growth, scaling inventory, and net margins continue to improve. I have also learned to pivot and scale back intentionally. Decisions have had to be made reacting to the market or economic impacts that were not by choice. Read more>>

Keith Vanpelt

The pandemic has primarily taught my business partner and I to be as adaptable as possible. We found it challenging to keep our exhibition schedule on track as covid cases surged and plateaued at unexpected times. We endeavored to communicate with our artists on a regular basis to gauge when an optimal time to reschedule their shows might be. While we scheduled less frequent in-person exhibitions throughout the pandemic, we amped up our online presence and redirected our attention to online sales. Read more>>

Tara Powers

Pre-COVID, I wrote the book Virtual Teams for Dummies. I would have never imagined how important the tips and strategies in that book would become once COVID hit. When COVID started and everyone shifted working from home, my business model of doing in person, live workshops and training immediately shifted to virtual learning and training via Zoom. I would also asked to help leaders learn to lead virtually – FAST! So we adapted our business model and incorporated eLearning into our programs so that leaders and their teams could do self directed learning on their own and then combine that with live, virtual learning via Zoom with their peers. Read more>>

Porscha Newman

Working in the hair industry has its ups and downs. One day you may have clients and the next day or so you may have none. During my downtime i’ve had to advertise my work by passing out flyers, posting on all social media outlets and work on my craft. Success doesn’t happen overnight. it takes hard work and dedication. I’ve had to invest in my business by finding a good location to make my clients feel more comfortable and to feel safe. Read more>>

Debby Stone

As coaches and workshop leaders, we traditionally met with our clients face-to-face. When Covid hit, we immediately pivoted to an online only model. While we had occasionally met with clients by phone or video, we moved everything to remote. Now almost all of our coaching work is done via video and the effectiveness is just as high as it was when we met in-person. We also shifted all of our training and workshops to video. Read more>>