Things To Consider Before Scaling Your Business

This article is written by Milambo Kabeleka, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.

Eamonn Carey, now the Managing Director at Techstars London, and Venture partner at Zeroth, an AI machine learning accelerator program in Hong Kong, has been a fan of programming with experience in writing code that goes as far back as 30 years ago. As a kid, he would write code to impress girls. While this may not have yielded him results in the past, it still set him up for his career in Tech.  

When a technology startup has gone through the development stages, after the idea has been developed, and the first round of funding is in, it is now time to think of scaling. Before you actually get to scale, there a number of things you will have to think about.

Make your product fast: As people interact with your product,  whether it is a website or application, make sure there are no delays or hiccups in the way pages load. Make your product feel like magic. When using an application, the smallest delay could irritate your users. There are a lot of small things that can affect your users experience, and so make it your mission to wow your customers.

Make it clear: Make it obvious in your pitch what your company is about. You want people to get it in the first 5 seconds. Even as people see your brand, make it easy for people to understand what problem you are solving and how. Avoid ambiguity.

Make it easy to use: Using your product should a be a seamless experience. Make your product available on the most common medium such as a phone or tablet, using the most accessible platforms such as iOS and Android.

What actions do you want to drive: Once your product is developed and you have defined what action you want to drive, make it obvious by making it the first thing your customer sees. Like in the case of Snapchat, their app allows you to share a moment using pictures, so they made the camera to be the first thing you se. Get to the action quickly.

Make it simple.: Imagine if you had to read a long list of instructions just to use a filter on Instagram? That would take the fun out of sharing pictures right? Simplicity is the key to a great experience. No one wants to open an application only to find they need a whole list of instructions on how to use it. Make your product simple and straightforward.

Get real people to try your stuff:  While using your friends and family to test your product can help you get views, using real people is best approach. It is important to get the most honest review, so that you can improve on any mistakes before scaling.

Test, Test and more Testing: Keep testing your product on different people and different types of screens. From phones to tablets and PCs. It iis important to see how your product works or looks on different screen sizes.

Don’t be afraid to change: After all this testing, when you find that your model is still not delivering the desired solution, don’t be afraid to pivot. Getting it right creates a viral loop for your customers  where they see, click, enjoy your product, use it frequently and get the desire to share your product with other people and finally share. That, is how  you get the viral growth which leads to scaling.

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