The most common business challenges for scaleups

Moving from startup to scaleup is one of the hardest things for entrepreneurs to do. Here are some of the most common challenges - and how to tackle them.
June 13, 2019

Entrepreneurship is really difficult. There are all the challenges of creating a company: finding funding, market research, securing an office location and actually making those first few sales. We often focus on how difficult it is to get started up, but even after you've launched your startup business things don't get easier right away. Keeping your business afloat over time and eventually growing that business are two of the most trying business challenges you'll face.

Making the decision to take on a business scaleup is a really exciting time for any company - there's no limit to what your company is capable of if you pull off a successful scaleup. Going from startup to scaleup is not without its challenges, though: from managing an increasing workload, a larger workforce and more extensive project list, to keeping your processes optimized for maximum productivity, you've got your work cut out for you. Keeping on top of all these things can seem impossible to a fledgling startup, but these business problems can be tackled with strong organizational skills, a passionate team and a willingness to step into the unknown.

What does it mean to scale a startup?

Scaling a startup means growing it. But growing your business means facing business challenges, so your scaling a startup also means hard work. There are countless startups launched each year, and a whole load of scary statistics online to go with them. According to sources, only about half of startups make it past their fifth year. Over 70% of those failures are due to premature scaling, according to research. Scaling your startup can mean going from 50 to 5,000 clients; from a team of four to a team of 20; from a $50,000 turnover to $5 million.

 

Choose the right team for your business scaleup to improve chances of success

 

What are the barriers to startup growth

No matter how great your product or service is, there will always be barriers to growth that you'll need to face. You'll need a lot of money to develop your product, produce it at scale or provide your service to a wider audience, and capital isn't easy to come by. You'll also need a strong workforce that's equipped to handle the extra strain of expansion. Your team will need to plan the strategy for your business scaleup and guide your startup into its bright new future, so they have to be reliable and productive. This can mean hiring a few extra heads - which, of course, costs money.

Primarily, most of the business challenges faced when phasing between startup and scaleup can be traced back to finance. Expansion is hugely expensive, and many startups can't grow to their next phase without the backing of investors. Raising funding is no walk in the park, but there's a range of opportunities to raise the capital needed for your business scaleup. At Trint, we're no stranger to scaleup funding adventures - we recently secured $4.5 million in Series A funding.

 

Gorwing from startup to scaleup is a challenge for lots of entrepreneurs

 

Since Trint was first created in 2014, Trint has secured $7.8 million in funding from investors that include Horizons Labs and the Google Digital News Innovation Fund. For Trint, scaling up meant a huge amount of investment in the product that we offered to consumers, and as we move forward with this fresh funding our proposition only grows stronger.

Building the case for your business scaleup funding involves your whole team from the ground up. You'll need to get right under the skin of the successes of your startup, and discover the areas that need an injection of capital for growth. This needs meticulous planning and organizational skills - prepare for meetings on meetings, and meetings about the meetings in preparation for the next meetings.

How do you keep track of all this planning as you build your business scaleup portfolio? Documentation with Trint. Recording your journey from startup to scaleup is a key part of your journey - don't be caught short when it comes to the records of your key decision making and strategy meetings.

 

The business scaleup you're looking for is well within your reach - arm yourself with the tools to make it work. See how Trint's enterprise audio to text platform helps scale businesses of all sizes:

 

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