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How to Scale Your Agency or Business in the Post-Pandemic Era

By: Felix Velarde

 

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For businesses that were paused or plateaued by the pandemic, here are a few key steps that can spark fresh growth today.

I’ve been chairing, founding, growing and selling businesses for decades — long before smartphones, social media platforms and in-app advertisements became such core channels for customer acquisition and engagement. For that first chunk of my career, I relied almost entirely upon trial and error, which I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

The truth is, I had no idea how to scale my businesses whatsoever at the outset. But I dug in. I learned. I A/B tested to exhaustion, evolved with the times and eventually was able to identify a proven system for scaling a business and tripling its revenue that I’ve since been able to streamline, package and market to help other business owners like my former self. Today, as we reemerge from the global pause of the pandemic, more businesses than ever are struggling to regain and scale their pre-COVID traction. This article is for those leaders.

If your agency or business has hit a wall — a plateau — for whatever reason, and you just can’t seem to get it past that hump, here are some steps for where to start.

  1. Take a moment, either with your business partner(s) or on your own, to truly consider what you want from your company. Think about what you want the business (and your life) to look like in 2 – 3 years. This clear vision is vital to transforming your strategy and directing your efforts moving forward. Without this authentic long-game clarity, you and your team won’t be able to accurately visualize and actualize the future — or your roles in it. This goal amortization method cuts out a lot of wasted time and effort and helps you focus only on the critical projects that will deliver your ideal outcomes.
  2. Identify who your A-team players are. The ones with real, lasting potential. The ones who are invested in your vision. The ones who could take over for you one day. They might be senior managers or junior members or those who usually work out of sight. List them out, and then actively invest in their future at your company. Just as I encourage everyone to have a mentor, I also encourage business owners to train where necessary, then hold back and let their team collaborate to drum up ideas and solutions for themselves. In doing so, you gradually offer them more responsibility, accountability and pride over the work they achieve together.
  3. Bring your team of superstars together to design a plan of action. This is where our 2Y3X strategy map typically comes in. You can start at the end with your biggest goals and work backwards, or start from today moving forward. Either way, be sure to specify actionable steps, deliverable timelines and who will be responsible for which item. This kind of delegation is critical to scaling a business beyond yourself and your capacity.
  4. Split that roadmap into five segments: People, Clients, Sales & Marketing, Finance & Corporate, and Processes. Prioritizing a handful of tasks each quarter across each of these areas will help ensure that you don’t ignore crucial projects and keep everything that matters moving forward.

With these steps and systems in place, your brain-child machine will get fresh oil, new drivers and clearer terrain to move swiftly and more seamlessly toward those outlined end goals. Along that path, you’ll see processes tightening up, new ideas being designed and your team empowered to bring your shared vision to life.

Published: July 23, 2021
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Felix Velarde

Felix Velarde is the co-founder, CEO, and chairman of the 2Y3X program, a two-year global growth accelerator for companies that have plateaued and are ready and determined to scale up. He is also the author of Scale at Speed: How to Triple the Size of your Business and Build a Superstar Team, a manual for forward-thinking business leaders who want to learn how to grow and scale their organizations.

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