Does scaling your business have you and your team feeling like it’s hit a long growling plateau?
The first thing you must do if you want to scale your business to the next level is to audit your business!
I’m not talking about an IRS type of an audit. But the kind that gives you the PULSE of your business from a holistic perspective.
An audit will bring clarity to you and stakeholders. Allowing you to see clearly what the most essential metrics and KPIs to track and watch. It also tells a complete story and allows you to rest assured to know where you currently are. The purpose of the audit is to understand your current state and see what needs what gaps can be addressed in order to get to a “Future State” and that is the entire purpose of an audit. So I strongly recommend that you start with one of these whether you do it yourself (a self-audit) or hire a data coach with a strong digital marketing background to comb through and collect the information and data that will lead to the facts happening in your business.You see…growing a business is probably up there as one of the most rewarding things that you’ve done and I want to congratulate you if you’ve gotten to the point where you are already hitting six-figures in revenue.
Perhaps you are in the Early to mid 6-figures ($200K – $750K), you’ve established strong foundation for growth, you have your team in place, you have systems and operations documented, you have multiple revenue generating services or products in place and it’s been a blessing to your family, community, and impact….
However…now you are ready to expand and scale… and try to reach the next level.
But how?
You see the first thing you must do if you want to scale to 7 figures is to have an audit for your business.
When I say the word audit…. It doesn’t sound exciting, it doesn’t sound fun, it actually sounds messy and even annoying.
Years ago when I started my career a jr. level analyst working with a big defense contracting firm, I recall auditors coming in to audit. I had no idea what that meant other than document and ask us billions of questions about our roles, processes, workflow, timesheets. I know they went deeper with their questions when it came to time to talk to my bosses at the time, the program managers. Everyone was tense and it felt like a burden to us because we had to “look back” instead of forward.
Ultimately this “looking back exercise” (audit) not only helped the GSA understand where tax payers’ dollars were being spent but it opened up the discussion internally for the firm to know how to improve and eventually scale. It gave everyone a new found echocardiogram to establish a baseline on the pulse of what we were doing already. And how we were meeting our clients expectations and where improvements could be made to products, services, as well as marketing our talent.
As you can see, an audit is the first step to give you an assessment on the state of your business.
Everything is assessed and analyzed as it is. Questions are asked. Numbers are plugged in. Data is collected. Bad data is abolished. Essential metrics are aligned.
Going back to perform an audit might seem like having a month-long root canal. You can see exactly how they’re working, see how your team is working, see how all your marketing, sales and daily operations are performing. This is how you baseline your current state. Every business no matter how big or small needs to do this.
Why do an audit on your business systems?
An audit will bring clarity to you and stakeholders. Allowing you to see clearly what the most essential metrics and KPIs to track and watch. It also tells a complete story and allows you to rest aimpossible to know where you currently are purpose of the audit is to understand your current state and see what needs what gaps can be addressed in order to get to a future State and that is the entire purpose of an audit so I strongly recommend that you start with one of these whether you do it yourself (a self-audit) or hire a data analyst with a strong digital marketing background to comb through and collect the information and data that will lead to the facts happening in your business.
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