Scale and succeed

If you’re at the stage of thinking how to successfully scale your business, the chances are that you’re already doing a lot of things well and are in a position of positive revenue growth. To scale, businesses must ensure they have the right long term plan and structure to create sustainable growth, which is about more than just growing revenue.

Matt Cormack, a Partner at Ward Hadaway is part of the team helping ambitious scaling companies like Atlas Cloud and Forfusion.

His job is to work with businesses on their plans to scale and to ensure that the right legal structures are in place to achieve the plan. Matt said; “Scaling successfully is about putting in place a structure to allow for sustainable growth and considering the balance of adding revenue and resources. The needs of businesses will vary, but might include, for example, creating structures for incentivising senior management or ensuring the business is in the best place possible for external investment.

“Over the years Ward Hadaway has helped hundreds of businesses to scale, and ultimately achieve their exit. We find that clients trust us to help with their plans for scaling, not just because we are expert at putting in place the legal requirements, but because we understand their sector. We will constructively challenge their plans where we can add value, based on our collective experiences.”

Here, Matt shares some of his top tips, alongside business leaders who have been there, and done it. Follow them, and you’ll be set for success on your scale up journey.

1. Make your contracts work for you

Matt said; “Often a scaling business will look to re-focus internal resource, and rely more on external providers for particular efficiencies. Dealing with new service providers, or outsourcing a business critical service brings with it a higher level of risk which should be managed by carefully negotiated contracts.

“Another key element of scaling is to make your customer contracts work for you by ensuring your renewals process works well, to creating legal contracts and structures which allow for simpler on-boarding.”

Pete Watson of cloud based solutions provider Atlas Cloud agrees. He said; “Managing your risk is crucial. Invest in secure and scalable systems that protect your product or service.

“Atlas moved to a simpler, but robust customer contract, which increased the speed of sales by one month on average, and helped to protect recurring revenue into the business.”

2. Continue to innovate and protect your ideas

Steven Forrest, Chief Executive Officer at business transformation experts Forfusion has experience scaling his company. He advises; “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not innovating, and you’re simply not trying hard enough to make a difference and be the very best you can be. I genuinely think it’s good to make mistakes, as long as lessons are learned along the way and measures are put in place to ensure those mishaps are not repeated. Embracing this ethos can foster creativity, empower your workforce and in-turn deliver astonishing results.”

Matt adds; “Ideas and innovation are the lifeblood of any business and for any scaling company, it is important to stay ahead of the competition.

“Although a large part of our work is helping businesses to protect their intellectual property, we also work with businesses like Forfusion on their strategy for the exploitation of ideas, to help them to gain the maximum commercial return, both in the UK and in new international markets.”

3. Funding your plan

One thing every scale up business needs is to identify the resource required to execute their plan, and for many businesses, this is likely to mean obtaining capital from external funders.

Pete Watson said; “Having clear and adequately funded finance in place is a key requirement and will need you to communicate your marketing and customer acquisition strategy.”

Matt agrees; “Working alongside our corporate finance team, we are always able to speak to scaling businesses about the options available for them in terms of finance, and to point them in the direction of our regional partners.

“Of course, that is only the first step, and having the right legal structures in place which are appropriate for the business’ funding plans is also key. Getting the structures in place early, and getting them right often helps to make the funding process easier, and gives investors’ confidence in the business.”

4. Define your strategy and invest in, and reward your team

Steven Forrest highlights the importance of communicating your strategy and ensuring buy in from the team.

“Make sure you define a clear strategy for growth – without a clear vision, mission and core values, scaling with stability can be very difficult indeed, if not impossible. The company’s overarching strategy and associated messaging should be effectively articulated, documented and communicated to every single employee. Transparency and openness are essential; the company’s strategy needs to be all inclusive, regardless of position or title.”

Matt continues; “Communication and buy in from employees is key. Often this means that businesses look to consider their options in terms of rewarding their employees and senior management, and look to bring in new people.

“The key consideration is to ensure that any reward structure and incentive scheme is fit for purpose going forward as the business scales. Working alongside our HR and tax teams, we are often consulted on what the options are, and how these would impact on plans for future investment and exit.”

5. Choose your advisors carefully

“Good advisors should not only be expert in their subject area, but should be able to pro-actively help the business to scale based on their own sector experience and networks,” said Matt.

“Advisors should be immersed in your plan and be able to apply their expertise to align with your strategy. Whether that means anticipating structures which a potential investor would expect to see or understanding the impacts that decisions made now could have on your options for exit.”

Matt added, “Access to networks is also important. Particularly in the technology market, with relatively low barriers to entry, we have several clients who are looking to scale by taking opportunities in new markets. With our membership of Geneva Group International, a group made up of highly vetted and quality assured firms from around the world, we can use our international panel to ensure businesses consider what might be different in term of the requirements of doing business in that territory, allowing them to make an informed decision.”

Pete concludes; “Having a good legal partner provides an important sounding board to support the different situations that naturally occur when scaling a business. Good lawyers safeguard the business and allow it to speed up.”

For an informal chat about how Matt could help your business, contact him on 0330 137 3412 or 0773 846 2586. Find him on Twitter at @mattcormack