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.

Favour Obasi-Ike

You know, people often look at a successful business and think it just popped up out of nowhere—like one day, boom, you’re making multiple figures in revenue and profit. But the truth? It’s never that simple. My business, Work and PLAY Entertainment, took almost 13+ years of grinding, learning from mistakes, and constantly adjusting before it got to where it is today. There’s a super long way to go but when you think in decades, like lasting companies we know, you can achieve a lot more, using a special ingredient mix of faith and focus. Read More>>

Emma Reynolds

When people look at my company today, they often assume it grew overnight. In reality, scaling up took years of experimentation, persistence, and refining what worked. When I first started, I didn’t just shoot weddings—I tried everything: fashion, events, corporate jobs, commercial shoots, and family portraits. Exploring these different areas taught me not only technical skills but also how to work with a wide range of clients and creative demands. Read More>>

Rostyslav Litvitskyi

Scaling up for me wasn’t a single turning point — it was a long chain of consistent efforts, each building on the last.

I started back in 2014, not as a business, but as a curious teenager creating YouTube videos for my gaming channel. To make my content look better, I had to learn design software for thumbnails and visuals. And of course, at first, there was no audience, no feedback — just me experimenting during weekends. But I quickly realized that what excited me most wasn’t the videos, it was the design itself: logos, posters, collages, photo editing. Read More>>

Nathan Stallings

From a very young age, gardening and floristry have always been a huge passion of mine. In elementary school, I remember running home, throwing on athletic clothes, and heading outside with my dog to garden. I had a small brick garden at the edge of the driveway where I would transplant plants I dug up from the woods behind my house. They thrived in their new, prepared conditions, and watching that space transform into an actual blooming garden was so exciting. Read More>>