Be Ready to Scale

Great opportunities do not happen very often; if there is potential for the momentum to be gained, you should not miss out the chance. You need to be prepared even for the unexpected. As you start to expand your professional experience more options and opportunities for your growth are going to start to appear on your career path. Be ready for it.

The best way to get great opportunities is to work with a company that has already started a growth process. When you are trying to reach the next level of professionalism, you should work with someone where you can scale and expand.  If you are in the position where you want to scale your career you need to know what are successful-growing companies looking for. Here are some practices and points you need to consider if you want to work with a high-growing company.

Become Infallible. In order to scale your career, you need to start taking precautionary measures to be presentable on all fronts. You need to have a sharp website, a strong online presence, a reliable LinkedIn profile and demonstrate your professional background through a well structured and clean resume. You need to become infallible even before opportunities start showing up at your door. Like in many aspects of life, is important to build a strong foundation to survive any kind of unexpected situation. When doing so, you can evaluate you are not missing out on potential opportunities, and overall growth.

Preparing finances. During growth, managers want to see clear numbers. What can you provide for them to build a strong foundation in their finances? Being prepared is vital and especially for small business during a stage of hyper-growth. A great way of getting financing apart from investors is through crowdfunding and loans. What are the financial skills and practices that differentiate you from the rest? Ensuring investments before gaining traction is crucial for a business to survive because it can become capable of meeting its customer demands. Understand that if a company does not have the money to produce and deliver what they are selling, then they shouldn’t even expect to meet its customers’ demand. How will your financial skills contribute to a scaling process?

Hiring the right people. When large companies are hiring they always consider how much will they have to spend on training. Growing companies always evaluate if the ambition levels, background, and professional experience of the prospect will contribute to the company. They know people they hire can either help or obstruct the development of the company. Managers know building the right team is crucial when determining the speed of the growth of their businesses.

Have in consideration your personal interests before taking a decision; How working for or with that specific company will affect your growing process? Remember, you want to grow not to stay at a mediocre level of competition.  Successful companies have a common element, employees that are dedicated and committed to seeing the company prosper. Make sure you are showing your level of commitment.

Stay Relevant. The periods of hyper growth in any business, last the longest are attributed to efficient marketing efforts and high customer satisfaction ratings. Same happens in the process of scaling your career. To stay relevant, assure your professional reputation. This means that is time to expand your network, show your work experience, and get all the professional references that pull out your greatest skills. Staying relevant in the job market is one of the best practices you can make in order to keep your career scalling.

This article was inspired by the ideas of Kumar Arora in his article "Five Ways to Prepare Your Business for High Growth"  for Forbes Magazine website, Feb 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2017/02/03/five-ways-to-prepare-your-business-for-high-growth/#6beb3e2260b0