When a new business is launched, its primary objective is to succeed and scale up its operations. It is a challenge to get everyone on the team to be on the same page, when it comes to scaling up.

We recently had the privilege of conducting an interview with Verne Harnish, when he discussed the contents of his book and explained how organisations can follow the critical steps essential to achieve rapid expansion and growth:

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1. Let Go And Trust Others

At the time a business starts operations, it is relatively easy to run as there are a small number of employees managing a limited set of customers.

The level of complexity increases as staff members are added and the work carried out by them gets more specialised. At this stage it is not possible for the owner to remain involved in every aspect of the business.

Those who try and micro-manage the entire range of activities will only cause harm to their company’s growth prospects. In fact, it should be the endeavour of every entrepreneur to hire employees who bring different skills to the table.

If the company is to achieve its growth targets it is essential for the business owner to give his staff the freedom to attain the goals that have been set for them.

2. Hire The Right People

Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

When taking a hiring decision, a business owner looks for traits similar to his own, in the prospective employee. What he should really be looking for are qualities opposite to his own.

3. Get A Coach

Entrepreneurs can get isolated and it is always a good idea to get a coach who can be a sounding-board for the company’s strategy and the important decisions that need to be taken during the course of running a business.

A coach can even be a friend who has experience in managing his own company and who is available to give advice to keep an entrepreneur focused.

Professional coaches may seem expensive to small business owners but if they provide sound advice, they can be worth many times more than what they cost.

In any case, it is imperative that an organisation that desires to scale up its operations have some external sources of advice. Coaches can prove invaluable and can often be the single reason for the continued success of a new enterprise.

4. Jim Collins’ Advice To Set Up A Council

Business owners trying to scale up their operations should get advice from all possible sources. Jim Collins, the author of ‘Good to Great’, a seminal work on management, has recommended that all organisations set up a Council.

The Council is essentially a device to gain understanding about important issues facing the organisation. It consists of key members of the management team and meets at regular intervals when participants have an opportunity to share their insights on areas in which they have specialised knowledge.

Importantly, the Council does not seek to build consensus, recognising that decisions taken on this basis may not be the ideal way forward.

5. The 4 Es Of Marketing

Shortened product life-cycles have made it necessary for companies to start thinking about the experiences they are offering rather than the products they are selling.

This will ensure that they are able to suitable modify their offerings to keep in touch with changing consumer demands.

The retail store or the ‘place’ has been replaced by a venue of the customer’s choice. Increasingly, purchases are being made online and the influence of the digital world on this aspect of marketing is all-important.

Price, which was considered to be critical, is only one aspect requiring the attention of the marketing department. A company needs to know how to get consumers to give them precious things like their attention, their engagement and their permission.

Evangelism requires that the oldest form of persuasion, word-of-mouth, is combined with the newest forms, social networking and Web 2.0.

Companies need to make the transition from the 4 Ps to the 4 Es if they want to be successful at scaling up.

6. Adoption Of The Correct Strategy

The steps a company needs to take to get the first million in sales are very different from what is required to get to 5-million level. Dollar sales per employee in large companies are much greater than in small organisations.

The reason for this is the processes and standardised procedures established in large companies. When a small organisation wants to scale up its operations, this is an essential requirement.

Processes allows employees to take action on their own without the need to waste time referring the matter to others or re-inventing the wheel at each stage.

7. Efficient Execution Is The Key To Scaling Up

Cross-functional teams can achieve seemingly insurmountable goals by adopting the Scrum principle popularised by Jeff Sutherland. The procedure involved requires team members to get in a daily huddle and compile lists of tasks to be completed.

A Scrum team is different from a normal team as it is self-managed, has continuity of team membership and dedication to a single project. Adoption of this principle has yielded impressive results for organisations trying to expand their size of operations.

It serves to focus the efforts of everyone concerned with an issue and provides the direction needed for the achievement of the desired goals.

8. Adequate Cash

The importance of having cash in the system cannot be over-emphasised. It is the lifeblood of any organisation and survival of a business in its absence is not possible.

Many organisations grow rapidly but fail to keep track of cash generation. If growth is at the cost of mounting debtors, it would be better to keep sales volumes down because each sale may be resulting in a depletion to the company’s cash position.

It is critical that a company track cash at every stage of its growth and acquire the tools to quantify the impact of its decisions on the cash available within the system.

9. Get Customers To Pay Upfront

If company is able to get customers to make payments in advance it will provide the liquidity needed to scale up operations. Amazon Prime is a prominent example where the online retailer is able to fund its expansion using the $75 it collects upfront from regular customers who opt for its scheme.

If a certain industry does not have a practice of customers making advance payments, an effort should be made to increase the deposits collected.

Every organisation, especially one expanding rapidly, needs to keep an eye on its cash position. Companies which lose this focus could be setting themselves up for disaster.

10. Get A One Page Strategic Plan

Over 40,000 companies use the one page strategic plan devised by Verne Harnish and detailed in his book Scaling Up. Adopting this simple tool can serve to provide direction to a company seeking to expand its business.

The skills that enable a person to become a successful entrepreneur include a strong sense of self-belief, drive and enthusiasm. Without these qualities it is highly unlikely that an entrepreneur will be able to get his project off the ground.

But as the business grows a number of different skill sets would be required within the organisation. The entrepreneur would need to adapt and learn to rely on his employees to enable the company to achieve the next level of growth.

Business owners who learn to make this transition will be successful in scaling up their operations.

Click here to listen to the full business interview with Verne Harnish.