{"id":6494,"date":"2014-04-28T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=6494"},"modified":"2020-04-03T18:01:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T22:01:17","slug":"challenges-scaling-people-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business","title":{"rendered":"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was about this time last year, Eric Paley of\u00a0Founder Collective<\/a>\u00a0took the time to warn me about specific challenges in scaling a people business.<\/p>\n

The cyclicity of early stage consulting firms was something I had to consider as I prepared to launch\u00a0Skaled<\/a>\u00a0at the time. He advised me to beware of ramping too fast, as that is so often the downfall of companies like mine. Considering the high turnover of consulting clients, we had to acknowledge the risk of taking on too many, too fast \u2014 then losing them and being left with a bloated team and a dwindling pipeline.<\/p>\n

This was just one of many lessons to be learned in our first year, but in experiencing them first hand, I can now offer my own advice to current and future founders of people businesses like myself.<\/p>\n

1. Mo people, mo problems<\/h3>\n

Your first few people can\u00a0set the tone for rapid growth<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 or they can grind progress to a halt.<\/p>\n

There are two things to consider in ensuring the former: passion for the space and some relevant work experience in the field. \u00a0You need people who can hit the ground running. \u00a0The typical startup technique is to hire smart people and they will figure it out. But if they don\u2019t have relevant experience or a serious passion to learn, you\u2019re not going to have the time or the resources to coach them through it.<\/p>\n

2. Plan for the future on Day 1<\/h3>\n

Our business model was built to help companies put together their initial sales\/marketing strategy, and then to help with the transition process.<\/p>\n

The problem this creates is a heavy turnover in client base every four to six months, which makes growing revenue very difficult. Planning to extend engagements from the start is how you avoid this issue. Consider the ancillary services that your company can provide (or partner with to provide indirectly) such as staffing or software\/systems.<\/p>\n

The churn of people businesses is often unavoidable, but extended engagements when possible will always help your company.<\/p>\n

\n

3. Market, market, and sell<\/h3>\n

As the founder of a people business, marketing and selling are the primary tasks outside of building our own internal infrastructure.<\/p>\n

These are not tasks that can be outsourced, as nobody knows the vision and issues like you. In order to maintain your sanity, avoid periods of hot and heavy networking. This will lead to a crash and burn, and then you\u2019ll be left scrambling to get back in the circuit whenever you eventually do. Build a healthy amount of networking into each\u00a0week\/month (coffees, events, meetings with peers) to ensure that you avoid a\u00a0cyclical\u00a0flow in your client lead generation.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest accomplishments in our first two years was focusing relentlessly on the core of our business \u2014 the sales process. \u00a0We clearly defined, refined, and executed on this process to truly prove its replicability in many\u00a0industries\u00a0including retail, CPG, hotels, restaurants, brands, agencies, and many of the\u00a0worlds largest publishers. \u00a0We kept our process flexible, so that it could expand and contract to fit almost any product. After hustling on the networking side, our sales efforts were a success, and we were able to show our clients how theirs could be too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rough out there. But let\u2019s learn from our mistakes and make stuff happen. It\u2019s what we do, and I\u2019m willing to bet it\u2019s what you do too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was about this time last year, Eric Paley of\u00a0Founder Collective\u00a0took the time to warn me about specific challenges in scaling a people business. The cyclicity of early stage consulting firms was something I had to consider as I prepared to launch\u00a0Skaled\u00a0at the time. He advised me to beware of ramping too fast, as that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1160,"featured_media":6568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree challenges to overcome when scaling a people business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It was about this time last year, Eric Paley of\u00a0Foun\u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was about this time last year, Eric Paley of\u00a0Foun\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ideas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-28T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-03T22:01:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"765\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-28T14:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-03T22:01:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business\"},\"wordCount\":586,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765\",\"articleSection\":[\"Professional Development\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business\",\"name\":\"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-28T14:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-03T22:01:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"It was about this time last year, Eric Paley of\u00a0Foun\u2026\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":765},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Professional Development\",\"item\":\"\/ideas\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"name\":\"Ideas\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization\",\"name\":\"WeWork\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55\",\"width\":55,\"height\":55,\"caption\":\"WeWork\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business","description":"It was about this time last year, Eric Paley of\u00a0Foun\u2026","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business","og_description":"It was about this time last year, Eric Paley of\u00a0Foun\u2026","og_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business","og_site_name":"Ideas","article_published_time":"2014-04-28T14:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-03T22:01:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":765,"url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business","datePublished":"2014-04-28T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-03T22:01:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business"},"wordCount":586,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765","articleSection":["Professional Development"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business","name":"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765","datePublished":"2014-04-28T14:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-03T22:01:17+00:00","description":"It was about this time last year, Eric Paley of\u00a0Foun\u2026","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765","width":1000,"height":765},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/challenges-scaling-people-business#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Professional Development","item":"\/ideas"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Three challenges to overcome when scaling a people business"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","name":"Ideas","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#organization","name":"WeWork","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/04\/welogo_black_55x55.jpg?fit=55%2C55","width":55,"height":55,"caption":"WeWork"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/author"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2014\/04\/shutterstock_101118637.jpg?fit=1000%2C765","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6494"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48135,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6494\/revisions\/48135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}