1. The Magic of Modular Thinking

Scaling is not just about growing, but growing smart.

In my opinion, there’s no any sense in doing something without any strategies or something that cannot be improved over time.

You shouldn’t just grow; you need to have a vision of how you’ll do it.

It would be pretty hard to understand what to do after you achieved something if you didn’t have a system and a plan for your approach.

New problems come out each day, and most of them need outstanding solutions. That’s why you should implement modular thinking in your business administration.

Start with breaking down processes. You wouldn’t be able to eat the whole pie at once, you need to spend a little bit of time and effort cutting it several times first.

The same principle works with startups. Don’t be afraid of the problems, they are the barriers in your way, but who said that we cannot break them?

There’re an infinite amount of solutions for each problem, but the first one is to divide it into smaller pieces. By removing each brick in the wall one by one we’ll finally get it crashed.

In a nutshell, It focuses on designing and organizing these problems in a way that they can be easily understood and solved. This approach gives you a lot of adaptability, so you can choose from many options.

By the way, it can also help you in life. When you look at a big goal and don’t know how to achieve it, you just need to divide it into smaller ones. By taking small steps, you’ll come to the right place!

Doesn’t matter how big and scary the problem is, it always can be divided into something smaller and less scary.

Implement the magic of modular thinking into your workflow and see how easily all of your problems are getting solved!

2. Invest in People, Not Just Tools

That was my mistake in the beginning. I haven’t spent enough time on my team and the functionality of the whole process.

I was obsessed with finding the best tools and the best productivity strategies. I’ve been watching hundreds of videos and reading a bunch of articles describing each new tool.

However, the truth is that I spent more time dealing with these tools than on the process itself.

Even the fanciest software won’t help if your team isn’t on board.

You don’t need to spend half of your day choosing which tool is better for email marketing, you just need to take what works for others and focus on more important stuff.

Tools have been invented to help you make your work more efficient, not to take away all of your time.

And trust me, you probably wouldn’t be able to find the best tool, even if you’d had all the time in the world. The decision to use a specific platform, software, or app is so complex and subjective that it’s impossible to find the perfect one.

It’s much better to prioritize team growth, training, and culture.

I’m not saying that you need to forget about all the newest technologies and apps that come out, you just don’t need to make that big of a deal. As I mentioned, they need to help you and not take away all of your attention.

In your free time, feel free to check out some of them and maybe even implement one right away!

3. Harnessing Customer Feedback Loops

Your customers are your compass. You can use them to go in the right direction and go further and further over time.

The more you look at your compass, the more confident you are in the current direction. And there’s nothing more important than scaling in the right direction, rather than just scaling.

There’s nothing unusual if you stumble and twist your ankle. All of us make mistakes; it’s business, it’s life.

So, to create this mythical customer feedback loop, you need to come up with a creative way of gathering information from your users. It can be just a Google form with several questions or even a 1-on-1 Zoom call with your customers.

Spending time gathering feedback is as important as creating the product itself. Never underestimate this part, especially if you’re a small startup that wants to achieve higher and higher pinnacles.

Also, after getting the information, you need to find a way to analyze it. There’re tons of guides and templates on how to do it right. It’s pretty crucial if you don’t wanna float in the ocean of uncertainties and uncategorized bullsh*t.

Everything should be systemized and automotive, it would take a significant amount of time in the beginning, but you’ll appreciate it in the future.

Of course, it’s pretty useless to gather feedback from your users if you’re not implementing what they want. You need to act.

It should be a never-ending loop of gathering feedback and implementing new features. Pretty simple concept, but most small startups do not understand it.

4. Diversify Revenue Streams

Relying on one revenue source? Time to explore new territories.

It’s an old philosophy to get revenue from only one stream and from only one product. Even if some of the companies specialize in a specific product or service, they’re still producing something else.

Let’s take an Apple for example. The most popular Apple device at the moment is, of course, the iPhone. However, they’re still producing a bunch of other products, accessories, and some useless stuff that no one has heard of.

Apple isn’t the only one. Even some really focused companies are still creating something else besides their main product.

When you start diversifying, you’re giving several options to your clients. You’re expanding your niche and making it more pleasurable for more people.

Think about upselling, cross-selling, and new product lines.

You also don’t have to make lots of profits from your main product. Sometimes you can even lose money with it. Let me explain.

It’s a pretty wise strategy that not many companies use. The concept is simple, you lose money on an anchor product but make profits on the additional ones.

The production cost of a hamburger can be more than the selling price, so you’re losing money. But you can offer french fries, sauces, drinks, etc. Each of these additional products has a high margin. And the magic is that most of your customers will probably buy at least some of them. (Because no one wants to eat a burger without anything else)

Xbox Series S is also a great example. As we know, it’s pretty cheap, and the cost of hardware is nearly more than the selling price. However, after purchasing it, you can buy a subscription with hundreds of games. Microsoft lost money on the hardware but gained profits on the software.

In a nutshell, when you’re just starting out, it’s crucial to focus on only one product. But when you’re scaling, it’s an absolutely different game with different rules. Produce more and diversify!