To Scale Or Not To Scale, That Is The Question

Since beginning my journey in business consulting in 2022, I’ve met and worked with entrepreneurs at all levels.

I’ve been mentored by multiple 8-figure founders who I’ve witnessed go through the 3 Stages of Scale.

Stage 1: Hitting a new ceiling

Stage 2: 10xing

Stage 3: Exiting

Stage 1: Hitting a new ceiling

This is the stage where your business has generating consistent revenue and then you pull a lever that catapults you to the next level.

Think going from $50k/month to $100k+/month.

Or going from $100k/month to $300k/month.

Then it feels like the flood gates are open and there’s no limit to how much you can scale.

More entrepreneurs doing under $1M per year strive to get to.

Stage 2: 10xing

Once you’ve hit your new ceiling in Stage 1, the question becomes — do we 10x this thing? Or maintain it.

This is a tricky question to answer as a founder.

“What? Who’d say no to more revenue, more profits, more scale? Let’s go for it!”

I believe that’s not the only question you need to answer. This is where you need to go deeper and really get clear on your vision as a founder as well what you really want to achieve with the business.

If you decide that you want to turn your business into a real asset instead of a lifestyle cashflow machine, then you’re going to 10x with the intent to sell the business one day.

Which takes you to Stage 3 - Exiting

This is where you really operate at the highest levels and scale every aspect of your business.

Lead generation? Scale spend on organic and paid on a consistent basis. (We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars per day.)

Then it becomes a non-stop cycle of making sure supply can keep up with demand.

If you decide you want to turn your business into an asset but to maintain your lifestyle with it’s cashflow, then you probably don’t want to 10x — you’re more likely wanting to 2-5x at most.

What you don’t want to do is “maintain” your current revenue levels.

Maintaining is risky. It makes you (the founder) comfortable and usually results in a lack of innovation to improve your offer to the market.

This can lead to new players in your market surpassing you and negatively impacting your revenue (directly or indirectly).

The other risk in maintaining revenue levels is cashflow issues.

A couple bad months in a row combined with a shift in your market and increased costs of acquiring new customers — you’re in for a tough time.

The positive outlook on not wanting to 10x and instead 2-5xing is that you can scale a little bit more methodically and really enjoy the journey both in your life and business for a longer period of time.

Most founders I come across before I work with them claim they want the $10M+ / year business. They say it’s the vision of the company and that’s where they want to go.

Then when they start working with me we do DEEP work on their life and current business setup.

Slowly but surely, they enjoy what they’re experiencing in a span of 6-15 months.

Better operations, streamlined systems, a more structured team and getting back a lot of their time.

Then they say “What’s next?” which is where I introduce them to a roadmap to their next “ceiling” that supports their so called “8-figure vision”.

Only to see the excitement go down the drain when they realize how much complexity comes with that territory and within a few days I get on a meeting with them where they say:

“JP life and business feels great. I’m happy, my family are happy, my team are happy and my customers are happy. I don’t need anymore than a $3-$5M / year business. Let’s revisit the vision and work towards that.”

I’d like to say out of 30 private clients I’ve worked with since 2022 — 10 of them descaled from mid-to-high 7-figures to low-to-mid 7-figures. 10 of them changed their business model to run a leaner operational and will 2x-5x over time. 5 of them still want to scale to 8-figures and 5 of them are indecisive.

Overall, the trend tells me founders don’t know what they don’t know. They’re building, scaling and growing without really understanding what’s required the higher they go.

So I ask you, to scale or not to scale? And if it’s to scale, when is it “enough”?