Transitioning a small successful growing business into a larger and highly profitable organization requires skills, persistence, experience, and knowledge. Even though having a successful company may give you hope, it is crucial to execute it in a way that can present the maximum benefits. One of the most difficult transitions a business can make is going from a small or mid-sized organization into a large one.
Frank Song is someone who has experienced that process through his sole ownership of a conglomerate of successful companies in unsexy markets. Prior to commencing his successful career in building and buying companies in little-known markets, he worked as a wall street buyout and growth equity investor at a private capital firm located on the exclusive Sand Hill Road. Before this, he was an investment banker that finished $500 million in transactions on behalf of technology companies.
Scaling a company successfully has many challenges associated with it. Frank believes that the first key solution is to hire the right people. Hiring is one of the most difficult endeavors a fast-growing company must face, and many businesses struggle with it. Frank believes that hiring is all about testing a potential candidate’s skill, understanding of the role, and judgment. He stresses judgment as one of the largest factors to hiring a successful manager or employee who will add value to the business
Second, Frank believes redefining the processes and procedures of the company from scratch when the company grows quickly is critical to having a smooth growing company. When you add more people to an organization, it can easily become a chaotic environment. Instead of creating temporary band-aid solutions, Frank believes every company needs to reanalyze and rethink what is the correct processes, procedures, and reporting structure for the company.
Lastly, Frank provides insights about training. He believes that having a robust training program for new hires is important for them to add value quickly from the beginning. It also introduces them to what are acceptable standards of his companies. This helps mitigate problems that can arise from quality issues.
Growing a successful company is difficult, but not as difficult as one thinks. Making the first million is always hard, but making the next million should be much easier. Many successful companies, from Amazon to Google,also employ similar strategies that Frank is a big proponent of. He believes the two most common reasons why businessowners can’t scale their companies are because they either are afraid to lose control with the introduction of more new people in their company or they are unsure how to do it.
