You would probably be wondering what a scaleup company is, and how it differs from a startup. If you’ve never heard the word before, a scaleup is a stage in which a business gets to when it just grows out of the startup stage. The word is equally used to refer to businesses which are in this particular stage of growth. 

The difference between a startup and a scaleup is much like the one between an infant and a toddler. They are both really young and newly developing but infants are at the very first stage of their lives. On the other hand, toddlers are more grown. They can walk around or at least crawl, and they communicate much better at this point. 

Now, in terms of business, a startup will just be finding its feet in a market. It will be trying to build a foundation and it will be constantly modifying its guidelines or standard of operation (SOP). 

This is not the case for a scaleup. In fact, unlike a startup, a scaleup already has its products and services out there on the market. They have a good number of customers, and they also have reliable sources of funding. 

Here Are 5 Steps To Transform Your Startup Into a Scaleup

1. Develop Valuable Products

Valuable and well-formed products are typically associated with the scaleup stage of a business. This achieves what is known as a product-market fit. Essentially, scaleup businesses have succeeded in garnering public loyalty and their goods or services address a market’s pain point so accurately that it receives wide scale adoption. 

Startups lack this kind of product, because at this stage, they are still in the process of gathering information, designing and redesigning their products, and compiling user testimonials.

2. Build a Solid Organisational Structure 

If you’re to grow your startup into a scaleup, you need to have a solid organisational structure. Everyone who is a part of your business must know their place, understand their obligations, and be very clear about what authority they have. More important than this, however, is that everyone has to have one specific role. 

This aspect of a scaleup is usually missing in a startup. Why this happens is that startups have few staff and so these employees have to take on many different roles in order to get the business going. 

3. Generate Steady Revenue 

Startups are known to be tight on cash. Most often, they depend on loans from banks or support from early investors such as venture capitals. This changes when talking about scaleups. 

The reason why it is so for scaleups is that businesses at the scaleup stage already have in-demand products or services. As a result of this, they enjoy a steady flow of income or revenue. These businesses also have the backing of committed and high-capacity investors who assist them with funds to scale and generate even more income or revenue. 

4. Introduce Automation 

Automation in business involves the use of technology for handling or performing repetitive tasks. The decision to automate business processes proves effective in eliminating errors, reducing operation costs, encouraging accountability and generally increasing productivity. 

Obviously, this is the kind of result that any employer would want. And since a scaleup is typically more advanced than a startup, it employs automation in several different processes. Some ways in which this is done are by using chatbots for customer service, sending automated responses to new leads, setting up meetings and activity reminders, among other things. 

5. Improve Your Tech 

In the 21st century, the one thing you need - in addition to a daunting business idea and a reliable team - is good tech. We have already mentioned that tech is useful in business process automation. But that’s not all. In fact, tech is applied in every aspect of a business. 

It is used to manage service, production or manufacturing processes and to ensure that work moves smoothly. Moreover, businesses these days employ technology in managing data and even determining who has access to such data. 

But while there is a lot of tech to go round, there is also something startup founders need to know. It is that they have to focus on purchasing the most relevant tech rather than just buying access to every platform out there.

End Note

We’ve seen that startups must develop valuable products, have a good organisational structure, introduce process automation, utilise technology, and generate steady revenue in order to become scaleups. 

Each of these steps are technical in nature. This explains why scaleups need to have a larger number of employees to take on specific tasks. Moreover, in addition to knowing these 5 steps, it is important to calculate the cost of a scaleup. And if ramping your business sounds impossible, you can go through the Epirus blog for more helpful articles.