Business Strategies

4 Lousy Reasons For Not Scaling Up Your Business

Written by Ashwin Satyanarayana for Gaebler Ventures

Starting a business requires immense courage and ability to handle challenges. Most entrepreneurs think the challenge of starting a business is good enough and never want to expand or improve business. Here are 4 lousy excuses you will hear.

We have too many businesses starting up, but we rarely see any growing into sustainable enterprises.

Although it all starts with the ambition levels of an entrepreneur, there are even more compelling reasons why so many businesses remain as fledglings and never grow a wing or two so to fly. Here are some of the lousiest reasons why most business owners don't think of scaling up:

I don't have enough working capital

Here is one of the most common reasons - it is also very common for entrepreneurs to not start their businesses due to this very reason - why most business don't bother to scale up. Lack of working capital or operating capital as it is called is the reason why small business entrepreneurs remain self-employed - two different ways of making money. Capital comes in when sales happen and as long as you have systems and ways to bring money in, capital shouldn't be a problem. Alternatively, you could always raise cash by seeking funding.

I don't trust others to do as well as I do

Michael.E.Gerber in his E-Myth Revisited termed this problem as the "entrepreneurial seizure." He states that most entrepreneurs typically good at something or the other the whole business is started on based on that technical skill. However, when time comes to scale up, they will not be able to because they wouldn't be able to trust someone else with the work that needs to be done. For a business to be scaled up, it is important that you learn to let go and let others - sometimes much smarter and resourceful than you are - take the reign.

I don't think I can manage employees

No one learns anything called management in school - not even in business schools. You only learn fancy jargon. The practical hurdles of management can only be learnt from experience - from just being there and experiencing. Eventually, while running your business and managing your employees, you will develop the fine art of getting things done through others. This is, by no means, an excuse for not having employees in the first place.

I hate the bureaucracy that growing businesses face

Bureaucracy is everywhere - be it employment, businesses, politics or even at home. Did that stop you from living your life normally? Isn't it all part of the fun of owning and running your own business? Did you not seek challenges when you first began? If running a business was that easy, don't you think everyone would have done it? These are little problems that need to be surmounted on your journey to build your wealth through your businesses.

Ash has an undergraduate degree in engineering and an MBA from Ohio University. Today he is a corporate trainer, business coach and a freelance writer.

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