In partnership with MT Sprout - Eureka! The market has a great need for your service or product and now you want to scale up as an entrepreneur. Without flying out of control or disappointing customers because the volume is too high. How do you grow successfully? In any case, focus on these six points.

Slow down and accelerate, that's what Paul van Bekkum and Dolf L'Ortye regularly see when companies find a product-market fit. They are the founders of the consultancy firm Summiteers, which, among other things, helps scaleups to grow. Things often go so fast at the 'front' that the 'back' can't keep up. “If you quickly figure out where things are rattling, you can do a good intervention on that,” says Van Bekkum. “It's important to know which buttons you can turn and which ones have the biggest impact.”

In the early stages, founders often do the sales themselves. “The product is in their head, they know it from oats to barley”, says Van Bekkum. But then they start to grow, meaning the founders must leave part of the sales to others. ''Sales tigers are brought in who go all out and sell everything they possibly can. Even though the systems and processes within the company are not ready for that at all.'' Let's say your software sales go through the roof. ''We then also need enough people who can implement the product. Setting up a good help desk, for example, is essential. This can be a tough process”, says L'Ortye.

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Standing still and zooming out

The growing phase is all about making choices and setting frameworks. “It can help enormously to stimulate growth more systematically”, says Van Bekkum. Summiteers helps founders and management teams to “really stop”. This means zooming out and looking at their company from that position. “Within scaleups, you see that they use repetitive processes in product development. We ask founders to look at their organization from that perspective. To see their organization as a product.'' Van Bekkum refers to an idea in the book “It doesn't have to be crazy at work” by Basecamp founders Jason Fried David Heinemeier Hansson. “By wearing those glasses, questions arise, such as: do your employees understand your company? Do they know how to use the organization? But also: what would you like to change? What can you solve easily and what do you need more time for?''

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Pain points in the organization

Entrepreneurs don't have to answer those questions themselves. Summiteers takes a look at the scaleup organization using the scan they have developed themselves. Van Bekkum: “This scan focuses on six areas of focus for fast-growing companies. It helps them to zoom out and quickly identify the pain points. Any noise between founders and the rest of the organization also comes to light.'' Founders often think that everyone has the path as clear as they do. “After both managers and employees complete the scan, it becomes visible that this isn't the case for all parts.”

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#1 Set a course — (The Plan)

Within a small startup, all employees know what is happening, where they are all going and where the bottlenecks lie. This is no longer obvious as the company grows. “Compare it to a walk,” says Van Bekkum. “When the three of us walk through Utrecht, we stay together and get to the same point together. If we do that by the age of fifty without a route having been determined in advance, there is little chance that we will end up at the same point.''

So it's all the more important to have a plan as a board of directors and to set a course to keep your people together. “Communicate that context clearly to your employees so that they can work independently within that context.”

#2 Record processes — (The Machine)

Capture things? Mwah. Startups don't usually like that. “Even though core processes actually become important as you grow. How do we get someone on board, how do we process a new order, how do we add a new software user? By looking at this from a process-based perspective, you give a head and tail to all activities”, says Van Bekkum. This way, you can keep an overview and you can quickly onboard new people. The smoother the machine runs, the easier it is to scale.

#3 Be clear who gets to decide — (The Organization)

Who gets to decide what? Who is responsible for what? When you create volumes as a company, it is crucial to have clear answers to them, L'Ortye knows. “In the software industry, you sometimes see that a salesperson independently decides on an extra feature or addition to a product, without consulting with the person who will implement it. The seller often has no idea about the impact on the process and system of what he has just sold.” This could then lead to things going really wrong.

#4 Accept that your role changes — (The People)

If only we could grow while maintaining the informal atmosphere of freedom and experimentation, the Summiteers often hear. “But running a five-man company like you're running a 50-man company is virtually impossible. As you grow, your role as founder changes. You have to accept that,” says Van Bekkum. Often, the founder does not realize the impact of his or her test balloons. “You're 'the boss', whose comments and suggestions sometimes weigh more heavily on employees.”

Reward structures, transparency and perspective are also becoming more important. “You have to think carefully about how to keep your people happy. For example, you wnat to offer a development process to an employee who is good for your company to prevent them from leaving.''

It sounds harsh, but a founder is not necessarily a good manager. “With strong growth, it sometimes makes more sense for a founder to step aside and appoint a CEO who provides more structure in the organization,” say both Summiteers. Actually, this can be a good time to ask philosophical questions, says L'Ortye. “Do I actually want to scale? Have I thought about the consequences? You can also choose to stay relatively small and make beautiful things with a group. Growth is not necessarily a goal.''

#5 Use Data — (The Cockpit)

Management teams regularly wonder if they're doing the right things and making the right decisions. “As a board of directors, you're actually in a cockpit where you're constantly looking at a dashboard,” says L'Ortye. “Are you going in the right direction, are you going fast enough, are you looking in the rearview mirror enough to learn from the past few months?” Then you need management information and financial data to make good decisions.'' This way, you can see if you may be doing too much acquisition and not enough recruiting. You can estimate what the growth costs and what it will yield. This “cockpit” is sometimes complex, emphasises L'Ortye. “One indicator is related to the other. That's why we say: try to focus on two or three buttons. Use those and leave the rest for what it is. Not everything has to change. It doesn't have to be perfect - that's not possible either.”

Case studies:

Scale back your (online) marketing messages on time. This prevents you from acquiring customers at high costs who you then have to disappoint because the operation or distribution cannot cope with the volumes.

When it comes to product development: opt for features that encourage your current users to constantly invite new people to use the app (growth). You could also opt for additions that will make money in the short term (profitability).

#6 Separate projects from line work — (The Change)

Actually, you're managing two organizations when your company starts to scale. “One is working on the further development of the product or service. The other does the sales and fulfillment of the current products. When the two get mixed up, people get into trouble with priorities. So pull the two apart,” says Van Bekkum. That doesn't have to be complicated. “Separate projects from repetitive line work. Discuss both separately: about how the store is running, and about renovating it. That saves focus. It doesn't matter that this involves the same employees. '

Good leadership is crucial to get through the growth phase successfully. L'Ortye: “As a director, you have to dare yourself to have confrontational conversations. Do we have the people in the right place? But also: am I still where I belong?'' Formalizing is also important, Van Bekkum emphasizes. “Because that's exactly what these people are often averse to, and because that's the big break in trend with where they come from. You have to have the guts to do that.''

The scale-up organization scan helps companies to zoom out and provide insight into the pain points. This is done on the basis of six focus areas. “Even though there is often little time, you need to quickly understand what's missing in growth. Only then can you make a good intervention on that,” says Van Bekkum. How and what to act on varies from company to company. “Each scaleup has different challenges.”