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Earlier, we did an interview with Verne Harnish on how to scale up.

But every seasoned entrepreneur would know that before you prepare to scale up, you need the right founations.

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SeedIn had the good fortune of interviewing Jeremy and hearing his views on how companies should approach the issue of expanding business volumes. His advice is especially relevant as he has used these same methods to grow his own businesses very successfully.

Jeremy Han, currently the director of corporate strategy at Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group, is a certified coach and a consultant for companies who wish to scale up their businesses.

An experienced and successful entrepreneur, he has established networks in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan in connection with his various ventures.

1. Mission And Vision Statements Are More Important Than You Think

A majority of companies spend a lot of time thinking up their mission and vision statements and then put them up on the wall and promptly forget about them. If you ask the average employee what his organisation’s mission and vision statements are, he probably will not be able to say.

Both should be simple, easily understood and each company worker should be able to relate to them. A good test for your vision statement is that you should be able to explain it to a friend who does not work in your industry.

2. Do Not Commoditize Your Product

If you believe that your product is a commodity and not a unique and special offering to your customers, profit margins will be wafer-thin and each sale will be difficult to achieve.

On the other hand if you can make yourself indispensable to customers, the industry you serve and the community, higher profitability and growing business volumes are assured.

3. Find Something That Your Customers Love But Your Competitors Hate To Do

Getting a new client is much more difficult than retaining an existing one and the best way to get repeat business is to offer the highest possible level of customer service.

Every company know this fact, but very few are able to establish an emotional connect with their customers.

4. Build on your competencies

First, you need to identify the traits that provide your company with a major competitive differentiation. This is harder than you think because it should apply across your business and not only to a single product of line.

The real test of whether a certain ability is a core competence is that it should be hard for others to develop and replicate. Additionally, your company’s core competence may be broader than is at first apparent.

5. Building Your Brand Is Essential To Scaling Up

For an entrepreneur just starting his business, sales is all-important. When the enterprise is at the 0 to $1 million level, it is essential to devote all your energy to this aspect of the venture.

But when a company moves to the next level of $1 million to $10 million, the brand assumes great importance. Strong brands regularly command a premium and customers willingly pay more if they are assured that they are dealing with a product which represents quality.

Many rankings put Apple as the most valuable brand in the world. The company has revolutionised four industries over the last 15 years and the iPhone, iPad, iPod and iTunes are household names.

But the brand that you build should be specific to your company and its core strength. It should become the single most important reason that a customer considers before buying your product.

6. Core Competencies Should Differentiate Your Brand

A company’s core competencies are the collective knowledge base of the organisation and its employees. These should be used to create value for customers in a manner that is not easily replicated by business rivals.

Many companies have been immensely successful by utilising this principle. Once a company establishes itself and starts making profits, others will follow it with similar products. But it is possible to prevent this by building an economic moat around your business.

7. Scaling Up Requires The Right People And Processes

Every large company has detailed processes in place for handling regular tasks. It is not possible for a company to scale up its operations unless it follows a practice of standardising the way it responds to everyday matters.

But it is equally important to have the correct people in place to handle the growing level of business in an organisation. Companies should strive to recruit people who are a cultural fit but come from diverse backgrounds.

The best approach is to hire workers who complement the skills already existing within the organisation.

The recruitment process itself should get the attention it deserves. One of the most successful companies of all time, Google, is famous for being extremely selective. Of the 2 million applications it receives every year it recruits only an estimated 7,000.

8. Managing Cash Is Critical To Your Success

For any company the cash conversion cycle has four stages. These are inventory / sales / billing / accounts receivable. You need to identify which stages you can influence and the processes for each.

Most people have a closed mind to the possibilities that exist for generating cash in a business. For example, they will say that the industry they work in follows a norm of paying after 60 to 90 days.

It is important to remember that the cash conversion cycle has four phases (inventory / sales / billing / accounts receivable) and while each may not be within your control, there may be scope to shorten length of one or more of the stages.

Additionally, each stage will have sub-processes and these may also be amenable to change.

Many small businesses pay extremely high rates of interest for working capital. It is important to calculate the cost you are incurring because of delayed payment from customers and work out if the transaction is giving you a net gain or a loss.

9. Hierarchy of revenue

A new enterprise needs to increase sales as fast as it can. Unless it achieves a certain size, it will not be able to cover its overheads and survive in the medium term.

Unfortunately, in the hurry to generate business volumes, many companies do not realise that every new customer does not add to their profits and cash balance.

It is important for companies to analyse their sales to discover if they have customers that take up too much of their time without giving proportionate returns. Most businesses will find that they are carrying customers of this type and it may be advisable to stop dealing with them.

10. Importance Of Having A Coach

Every entrepreneur needs someone who can advise him and provide impartial advice. A talented and experienced coach can pay for himself many times over with the inputs he provides to a new business.

Another important function that a coach provides is that he can be asked questions that are difficult to be asked within the company.

The contribution a coach can make to a business can be gauged from the fact that big U.S corporations spend an estimated $1 billion per year on staff and executive coaching.

A story, perhaps apocryphal, about the value a coach can add tells of a woman who saw Picasso doodling on a napkin in a restaurant. She went up to him and asked if she could purchase the doodle.

He agreed to sell it for $100,000. When the woman protested and said that the task had taken him barely 10 minutes, he told her that, on the contrary, it had taken him his whole life in preparation.

​Click here to listen to the full Interview with Jeremy Han