Scaling up your business- Lesson from the mountain Eagle

In a distant village at the foot of Himalayas a farmer was walking through a mountain pass and found an eagle’s egg. He came back to his hut and put the egg in the barn to hatch with hen. The eagle egg hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.All his life, the eagle did what the other chickens did, thinking he was a chicken too. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet in the air. Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird high above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.

The old eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?” he asked. “That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” said his neighbor. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth we’re chickens.” So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was.

Born to soar into the heavens, but conditioned to stay earthbound, he spent his entire life pecking at stray seeds and chasing insects. Though destined to be among the most awesome of all creatures of the air, he believed his neighbor’s counsel and never understood that he could have joined those majestic birds in the sky.

Any Startup business is like Eagle’s Egg, any wonder then that we keep hearing the word “incubators”. Very few startups have the gift to be an eagle ,to dream, to take risks and to soar.Startups which soar like eagles are risk takers. They are willing to dare mighty things even when it means they may fail. They will not allow the fear of failure to rule their decisions and finally they scale up and take wings.

So what is that mandatory mindset that all leaders need in order to scale and successfully grow their business. Scaling your business might seem like a big, overwhelming task. When you’re already busy with work, it can be hard to find the time to focus on long term strategies of scaling. A company’s growth curve can head in a variety of directions and not just in north – eastern  trajectory .

Here are the 10 things that separates the Eagles from the Chicken (Figuratively speaking)

1. The Larger canvass, having a grand vision, Think BIG – Scalability is a mindset, Leaders need to think big to become big. Having a scalable business means that you are free to unleash your dreams like that perineal Eagle ready to soar in the yonder horizon. At the center of “Scaling up” lies your organization’s Vision articulated in that “Mission Statement” which will act as guide to every choice that is made, both strategic and tactical, as you scale up to deliver broader and deeper impact.

2. Build Processes everywhere, Automate as you go along – Setting up cloud storage and organization. Setting up training processes for new hires, Setting up marketing automation, Setting up payroll for rapid processing. Build Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs).Do what is essential for the business and outsource all non-core areas. Eagles have a process of how to nest, feed, hatch and take wings.

3. Build your brand – have you seen those majestic eagles they stand up for something ,Birds of prey who glides effortlessly on the higher stratosphere, When we look up we can only see a dot in the sky but instinctively we know it’s the eagle and not sparrow… That’s the brand.

4. Build Differentiators – eagles don’t peck they are mighty birds of prey, they circle the sky and with one long scoop gather their prey and take off .Look at what your brand stands for and engineer it to adopt effective differentiators.

5. Hire Smart thinkers – A business is scalable, only when it has the right people on board.First, though, you have to hire only the people that are necessary to the operation.When business and life get crazy, the thought of having to hire and train new employees can be a little overwhelming. At the end of the day, though, when you invest in your employees, it usually pays off. Having a good leadership team with skills that are complimentary allows you to take a more strategic role, without having to spend a lot of time on the day to day operational activities, It is a good sign that your business model has matured.

6. Get the cash flow right – This one is all about forecasting. You’re obviously seeing success or you wouldn’t have scaling on your mind. Make sure you plan for how you’re going to pay for things like increased production and new hires and what you’ll do with any extra inflow.

7. Empower decision making and accountability – Empower decision making at all level of organization and hierarchy tracking engagement and task completion can help ensure your business is running as efficiently and effectively as possible. Keeping note of who’s in charge of what, what needs to get done this week, and what needs to get done by the end of the quarter will help your business stay on track and reach the goals you’ve set.

8. Create a Customer centric Organization – Eliminate the friction between what the customer needs ,what he wants and what you have… Listen and keep improvising. In order to keep growing, you need to be able to continue providing the same quality consistently. Part of that entails having the right production costs and timeline that are easily scalable.

9. Keep the right company – Managing and scaling business gets lonely at the top ,have a network of fellow entrepreneur ,discuss ,learn both from their mistakes and successes. Remember, what happened to the eagle that kept company with chickens.

10. Create community – Business is not only about profits but development of all stakeholders including society. Create communities and to do so have a central steering core team.

Remember, while your organization is scaling up ,it has to go through the process of bearing the rough winds, external factors may change, market may tank… keep foraging and then foraging some more until you reach the higher stratosphere. View from the top is mesmerizing .