Thinking About Scaling Up a Small Business? Here’s How to Prepare

We live in a time where you can take a small-scale hobby or skill and turn it into a great source of income. Maybe you teach an instrument on the side but wish you could scale it up to something bigger than your local neighborhood. That’s a great ambition to have.

We already know that avenues like online tutoring are super lucrative. Data shows it’s an industry that’s going to be worth more than $12.06 billion in 2025 and over $23.73 billion by 2030. It doesn’t matter if your hobby is tutoring or something completely different. If you want to carve out a bigger piece of the market for yourself, then keep reading, because we’ll be looking at three tips for scaling up.

1. Understand What Scaling Up Will Mean For You

Here’s the thing: it’s great to want to scale up and get more students or customers, but you first have to think about the implications. One of the reasons people like being entrepreneurs is that they get to work on their own terms. So, until you’re at the scale where you have to answer to shareholders and investors, it can be a stress-free life.

Does that sound like you? Well, if you love that freedom and the feeling of not having to worry about deadlines and pressure, that’s where scaling up gets tricky. You might have enjoyed a relaxed life with lots of free time until now, but that can quickly change if you hope to grow your operation.

A recent article in Forbes magazine highlighted the statistic that 58% of small business owners often work more than 50 hours per week. In other words, you need to prepare yourself for some degree of stress and long nights. If you’re okay with that, then you’re ready to move to the next step. 

2. Jump Into The Deep End

If you’re nervous about scaling up, no amount of preparation is going to make you feel ready. You’re always going to stumble upon new advice that says you need to prepare for something else. The fact is, scaling up is a process you learn as you go. You have to trust yourself and jump right into the deep end of the pool. 

So if you’re not sure about what to say during outreach calls or if you’re unsure about renting more space, don’t obsess over it. Think over the factors, make the decision, and just do it. You’ve already committed to this path, so you might as well run with confidence. 

But we get it. If you’ve been used to small-scale operations, even the idea of something simple like building a website might seem daunting. 

In such moments, it’s nice to gain some perspective and realize that even kids and teens have websites of their own. It’s certainly not rocket science. Today, there are services like Hocoos, which do the work for you based on a few questions about what you want. So relax, because the next point is what you should really be spending your energy on. 

3. Don’t Wait for Leads to Come to You

This is one mistake that a lot of people make. They feel like since they’ve put a lot of effort into planning their operations and invested in their website and content, the work is over. 

However, you can’t be content with those efforts. You simply cannot sit around and wait for leads to come to you. This fact is something you need to internalize as fast as possible. Why? Because it’s an oversight that can undo all your efforts. Make no mistake: even after your initial efforts, you’ll have to chase leads and find clients. 

The dominant narrative is that when you’re a good business, you automatically attract customers. Yes, that approach can work if you’re the only option in an Amish town of five hundred. It doesn’t work when people have access to countless other options besides you.

You might think that once you get big and successful like Alphabet, the parent company of Google, you can simply kick back and relax, right? Nope! In 2022, they spent over $4.37 billion on advertising. Even the best companies invest effort into attracting customers.  

To summarize, scaling up a humble operation doesn’t have to be complicated. If you’re ready to work hard and willing to embrace some amount of uncertainty, success might come faster than you expect. 

Thankfully, you don’t need to spend billions on ads to scale up your personal skill-sharing business. All you need to do is prepare yourself, jump in, and chase those leads, every day and every week.