A growing business can be halted by inefficient operations. The production aspects of a business are crucial to being able to capitalize on sales and build trust with your customer base.

Most people focus solely on making sales. Sales are the lifeblood of a business and are necessary to keep going. If sales increase, profit is usually not far behind. If sales dip, then the profits decrease, and cuts might have to be made.

Because of this, we tend to undervalue the operations of a business. But the operational aspects are just as important as the sales and marketing efforts.

There were several points in my career when I was brought into a company that was growing to build scalable operations. The leaders in the business knew that the business couldn’t keep growing without systematization.

These were always exciting times but also very stressful. Knowing sales were bringing in new business we had to find new ways to handle that added productivity while also improving the quality of the product or service we provided.

There were 3 key aspects to our success. If we didn’t hit all 3 of these, then we wouldn’t have been able to grow the business at the rate we did.

First, we had to create the right systems and processes. This meant that everything had to be streamlined. Everything had to be documented. We needed to be able to explain the process to a new employee or to 5 new employees.

Being scalable meant that we couldn’t limit the growth due to being unable to quickly staff up. The right systems and processes allowed this to happen. This included the training and onboarding processes as well as the ability to adjust systems to create more efficiency throughout the operations.

Second, we had to create the right culture. We had to eliminate the negativity that often comes with added work. We knew that more work meant more money and more opportunity. But staff often resisted because they couldn’t see the benefits.

We had to find ways to get the staff involved and excited about the growth of the company. We had to do a bit of internal selling. We sold the vision and explained how it would make things better for everyone.

Third, we had to focus on the right people. Having great systems was necessary, but we couldn’t expect those systems to run the operations. We needed strong leaders. We needed people to be willing to work hard and do what they could to make things better.

Trying to do things right when everyone else around is taking shortcuts leads to resentment. We needed everyone to be onboard with what we were doing.

Over time we started to see this spread throughout the organization. As more people bought into the idea of growth and improvement, the momentum carried forward without us pushing it all the time.

Seeing a business grow at a fast rate is exciting. Being a part of the leadership team helped me to learn a great deal about what it takes to grow.

When the sales team is clicking on all cylinders and the product or service is in demand, the operations must be able to scale up or down as needed.

The production team couldn’t be the cement block holding down the rest of the company. To build a scalable operation, make sure to build the right systems and processes. Then build the right culture. Third, make sure you have the right people.

As you do this, the business will start to become flexible and reliable. Over time the benefits will compound, and you will be able to quickly capitalize on the opportunities. You will be able to build scalable operations.