People always ask me: "James, how do I scale my business? What's the big secret?". The truth is, there is no secret. It's about taking the right steps and understanding the most important stages for scale.
Building the right team is one of these stages.
Like most other things in business, scaleability comes down to people - the people you surround yourself with and how strong your management team is.
When a business starts to grow, as do its functions, and in order to facilitate this growth you need to invest in people who share your passion, believe in the business and have a certain skill which will greatly help you. When you're at this stage you'll find there's too much work for just one person. You can no longer be the head of finance, marketing, talent and HR, because a basic understanding of these processes just doesn't cut the mustard when you're up against fierce competition.
As entrepreneurs, we always want to be involved in every aspect of our business because it's our pride and joy and we're all incredibly independent - but when you're building a business you can't just rely on your personal strengths and passions. People are the engine of your business - without every component in place, it just doesn't work.
We can't be great at everything and there are many aspects of business that may baffle you. For example, when I was starting my first recruitment business I knew that talent attraction was my forte. Finance management, on the other hand, definitely wasn't. I had no clue how to manage the finances of a business effectively - how to pay staff, invoice clients or manage cash flow - so I needed to bring someone in who had the expertise to fulfil these duties far better than I ever could.
This is when I needed to maximise the strengths of other people and build my "A-team".
For example, if you're looking to expand your client base abroad yet have no prior experience in markets overseas, how would you plan on executing the strategy? You'd be completely out of your depth if you were to take on this project alone because you're not in your comfort zone; you're not an expert. That's why you bring in someone who can point you in the right direction and tell you what's needed to get from A to B.
As an investor, whenever I am looking to invest in a business the most important attribute is an efficient and productive management team. If I'm investing in your business, that means I see enough passion and determination in your team and trust you to run and scale the business with my funds. If you can't illustrate a strong management team, there's no way I would invest.
After all, I need to make a profit and I know a business with a weak management team could not facilitate that.
If you want to succeed and attract investors, you need to recognise the importance of investing in people. People make businesses, not transactions, and if you overlook this I promise your success will be short-lived.