The scaleup period is generally defined as that where the business has proved it’s viable and is now focusing on rapid growth, with a revenue or headcount increase of more than 20% across three years.

Very rarely does this happen by chance, generally the entrepreneur behind the business will have landed on a scalable, desirable, and profitable idea which they have successfully brought to market. Then when they’re aiming for scaleup status, they will have focused on a number of crucial aspects, primarily being the following five:

Marketing strategy

Scaling up requires more customers, and that calls for a solid and deliverable marketing strategy. Ideally, you’d already have a strategy which covers the basics such as who your audience are, how and where you’ll reach them, and your identity within the market. But now it’s time to look at the specifics in order to drive results: what are your KPIs and how are you measuring and reporting on them, have you got the right skillset within your team to successfully deliver all aspects of the strategy, and how are you generating leads, increasing engagement and establishing your place in the market?

On-point messaging

The platforms you use to speak to your key stakeholders, whether we’re talking about internal staff or about target customers, are crucial. But so too is what you’re actually saying to them. Without consistent messaging, it’s difficult for clients to decide exactly what you’re offering them, why they need it, and what problems (or pain points) it will overcome. And consistent messaging also solidifies your company values and ethos, which is equally as important for your team and your clients.

If you’ve not already done so in the startup phase, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it, to ensure everyone within your business (especially as it starts to expand) is on message.

Brand amplification

As Steve Forbes, Founder of Forbes magazine, says: “Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business.”

Good entrepreneurs will have considered all aspects of their branding prior to bringing their product or service to market. But when their startup is moving into scaleup phase, building awareness of your brand is a must to ensure customers begin to recognise and differentiate you from you competitors. Without great (and consistent) branding, it’s difficult to build credibility and customer loyalty; and naturally your branding will be a crucial element of your marketing strategy.

Generating leads

There will be at least a small market for almost every good product or service, so establishing a small-scale number of customers is achievable for startups. But scaling this up to attract the sort of revenue growth needed to achieve the next level of success requires a much more strategic approach. Appealing to, engaging, nurturing and converting potentials into customers who return time after time is the only way to grow a business, and as a result start seeing elevated profits.

A lead generation strategy and funnel are essential to ensure that you’re not only attracting quality traffic, but also that you’re able to track and support their decision-making journey to effectively convert them. Without these in place, you’re in danger of adopting a scatter-gun approach which may achieve initial success, but will eventually see leads dry up, or result in you attracting leads which don’t align with your customer profile (so you’re not able to convert them effectively).

Dream team

Most startups will have a relatively small team, but by the time they’re considered a scaleup, headcount will be much higher. This requires a strong recruitment and retention policy: it’s all well and good hiring people, but if they’ve not got the right skills and experience, or they don’t stay with your company in the long-term, then they’re not going to provide value to you on your journey towards scaleup status.

It's all about making sure you hire into the right roles, so that you’ve got a strong mix of skills across a range of departments, and that you select the right people for those positions. Another option many startups explore is outsourcing tasks to third-party companies (like PR or HR, for example) or considering the use of external experts, in order to support their scaleup journey.

While there may be many different aspects to consider, and many strategies and policies to put in place, undertaking this work puts businesses in the best possible position to achieve that next level. And the rewards are well worth it: there are currently around 34,000 scaleup businesses in the UK according to the ScaleUp Institute. Yet despite them making up less than 0.6% of the SME population, they represent half of all SME turnover output.

By becoming the one in 200 which makes it to ‘scaleup’ paves the way to the mature or established stage, where you enjoy a strong market position, predictable cash flow, brand acceleration and more. The starting point, of course, is with the right strategy for success.

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