Show Notes
Caleb asks: "Things have been running smoothly, but I'm scared to flip the switch."
In this episode, Scott busts the "scale switch" myth—there's no button you flip to 10X overnight. That's romanticized nonsense. The only way to know when to scale is through data, not hunches. Without numbers, you're living in the visibility trap.
Scott introduces the faucet metaphor: turn the cold water to a trickle, add a little more, keep turning the knob. You don't start at full steam. Apply this to your business—if your ad budget is $200, go to $300 next month, not $2,000. Watch for bottlenecks. Pressure test your systems before adding volume.
The cautionary tale: a company went from 3 influencers to 30 on guru advice. Different platforms they hadn't tested. Train wreck. Financial mess. Systems couldn't support the volume.
The anti-10X message: One of the lies entrepreneurs are living is "10X or grind, baby." There's no switch. Growth comes with time and constraint. Don't unleash ridiculous volume through a system that hasn't been pressure tested.
The bottom line: Scale like a faucet—incrementally, with pressure testing at each stage. Don't 10X before your systems can handle it.
Got a business question? Ask Scott here: scotttodd.net/ask
📜 Full Transcript (Click to expand)
Scott Todd (00:00)
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you fix your business. I'm your host, Scott Todd, and I've built multiple seven-figure businesses. I advise other business owners on how they can do the same thing. And I help you in this show by answering your questions. And I think that that's really the best way to learn is when you see where other people are stuck, then you can learn from those ⁓ stuck moments and then
Make sure that you're not doing it in your own business. Today's question comes from Caleb. And Caleb writes, how do you know when to scale a business? Things have been running smoothly, but I'm scared to flip the switch.
Caleb, I mean, I think that I'm kind of laughing inside because I think that the idea that there's a switch that you flip up and you're like, boom, here's the scale button, let's flip it. I think that that's oftentimes romanticized because that doesn't really exist. like you can throw more volume at something, but more volume doesn't always mean that it's the right way to grow a business.
I think what you really have to go step back and say, hey, listen, what is the proper way to grow the volume that's going to go through the systems that we've created? And the only way that you can know that is through data. So many times business owners, entrepreneurs, they want to go off their hunches. They want to go off their intuition, but your intuition is going to be wrong. Okay. The only thing that you can do in business that will drive you forward is
Data is the answer, not a hunch. You need to have the numbers or the analytics behind it because if you don't, then you're living in a visibility trap. That's just the reality. Visibility trap, one of my five traps, but visibility trap, you can live there because you're not having the data, you're following your hunch, your intuition, and it's a terrible way to do it. What I would rather you think about in terms of scaling the business is I'd rather you think about
how you're adding supply into the system. So the way that I think about businesses is a series of processes. The series of processes need to be able to support some load. And you said in here that things have been running smoothly. OK, well, if things are running smoothly, it's OK to add up some of the volume. Remember, every business starts with some sort of a trigger. Maybe that's marketing.
So you spend more in marketing, you get more volume through your system, and you test it. Where I think people go wrong is that what they try to do is they try to magically 10x something, and it doesn't work. The system doesn't work. mean, think about a faucet, for example, shower. You turn on the water little bit. You could actually turn on your shower to be a trickle.
turn it on to be a trickle and you can add a little bit more and you can add a little bit more and you keep turning the knob and I'm like the cold knob, okay? Because you're not turning the cold knob, you're not making the water colder, you're just making more of it come out. Now the hot water's a little bit different because you're mixing the water, whatever. Cold water, turn the knob, when it's on full steam, you're getting maximum in there. But you don't just instantly start at full steam. There's no, I've never seen a...
faucet or a knob that you can turn and it's instantly all on, you turn the knob, you turn on more volume. That's the way that I want you to think about it with your business is I'm going to take whatever the initial input is, marketing or whatever, I'm going to apply more to that and I'm going to apply a little bit more. I'm going keep applying more. So maybe your ad budget is $200 this month. Well, next month,
Make it 300, not 2,000. Make it 300 next month. How does everything hold up? Are we seeing any bottlenecks? Are we seeing any traps? Are we stuck somewhere? No. Next month, maybe go to 500. See, now we're incrementally growing. It's not necessarily we're going at $100 month. We can add more and more to it, but we just want to do it in a way
that we can step back and look at the systems as they're being pressure tested to see how they're working. I was ⁓ working with a company that I was advising and they had kind of created a mess. What they had done is they had systems that were working, they were using influencers to market their business, they had three influencers, life was great, everything was good, and they took the guru's advice to go for the
the 10X baby, 10X yet, go from three influencers to 30. And look, that did not scale across platforms because all of a sudden they were dealing with different marketing platforms, social media platforms. They hadn't tested on some of these others. And as a result, it was a train wreck and they created a financial mess for themselves. They created a systems mess because the systems couldn't support what was going through there.
And basically what they did was they tried to grow too fast. They tried to 10X it before they were capable. And I think that that's one of the lies that entrepreneurs are living today, especially where they're being fed this, ⁓ 10X or just grind, just grind, baby. But we think that there's this switch that we need to turn on. And I got to tell you something, there's not a switch. It's something that comes with time.
And I see so many business owners and entrepreneurs just try to throw everything they have at it because they think they're ready. And it is a disaster. All right. So don't be in a hurry to grow your business as fast as you think you want to. ⁓ And look, I know it's easier said than done because I know that when I had my corporate VP job and I just wanted out, I was also
fearful that I was going to lose my job. I was looking for a way to do the exact same thing. How do I grow this thing faster? How do I replace my income faster? How do I do this faster? And it's very, very, the thought is cool, but it's actually hard to do in practice. It really needs constraint so that you don't just unleash just ridiculous amounts of volume.
through a system that hasn't been truly pressure tested. So think about your plumbing, think about pressure testing your business, and give yourself a little bit of a break. Don't listen to the grind culture and grow at a pace that makes sense for you and for your business. All right, Caleb, appreciate the question. And if you have a question, you can go to scottod.net forward slash ask, get your question answered, and I will see you in our next episode.
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you fix your business. I'm your host, Scott Todd, and I've built multiple seven-figure businesses. I advise other business owners on how they can do the same thing. And I help you in this show by answering your questions. And I think that that's really the best way to learn is when you see where other people are stuck, then you can learn from those ⁓ stuck moments and then
Make sure that you're not doing it in your own business. Today's question comes from Caleb. And Caleb writes, how do you know when to scale a business? Things have been running smoothly, but I'm scared to flip the switch.
Caleb, I mean, I think that I'm kind of laughing inside because I think that the idea that there's a switch that you flip up and you're like, boom, here's the scale button, let's flip it. I think that that's oftentimes romanticized because that doesn't really exist. like you can throw more volume at something, but more volume doesn't always mean that it's the right way to grow a business.
I think what you really have to go step back and say, hey, listen, what is the proper way to grow the volume that's going to go through the systems that we've created? And the only way that you can know that is through data. So many times business owners, entrepreneurs, they want to go off their hunches. They want to go off their intuition, but your intuition is going to be wrong. Okay. The only thing that you can do in business that will drive you forward is
Data is the answer, not a hunch. You need to have the numbers or the analytics behind it because if you don't, then you're living in a visibility trap. That's just the reality. Visibility trap, one of my five traps, but visibility trap, you can live there because you're not having the data, you're following your hunch, your intuition, and it's a terrible way to do it. What I would rather you think about in terms of scaling the business is I'd rather you think about
how you're adding supply into the system. So the way that I think about businesses is a series of processes. The series of processes need to be able to support some load. And you said in here that things have been running smoothly. OK, well, if things are running smoothly, it's OK to add up some of the volume. Remember, every business starts with some sort of a trigger. Maybe that's marketing.
So you spend more in marketing, you get more volume through your system, and you test it. Where I think people go wrong is that what they try to do is they try to magically 10x something, and it doesn't work. The system doesn't work. mean, think about a faucet, for example, shower. You turn on the water little bit. You could actually turn on your shower to be a trickle.
turn it on to be a trickle and you can add a little bit more and you can add a little bit more and you keep turning the knob and I'm like the cold knob, okay? Because you're not turning the cold knob, you're not making the water colder, you're just making more of it come out. Now the hot water's a little bit different because you're mixing the water, whatever. Cold water, turn the knob, when it's on full steam, you're getting maximum in there. But you don't just instantly start at full steam. There's no, I've never seen a...
faucet or a knob that you can turn and it's instantly all on, you turn the knob, you turn on more volume. That's the way that I want you to think about it with your business is I'm going to take whatever the initial input is, marketing or whatever, I'm going to apply more to that and I'm going to apply a little bit more. I'm going keep applying more. So maybe your ad budget is $200 this month. Well, next month,
Make it 300, not 2,000. Make it 300 next month. How does everything hold up? Are we seeing any bottlenecks? Are we seeing any traps? Are we stuck somewhere? No. Next month, maybe go to 500. See, now we're incrementally growing. It's not necessarily we're going at $100 month. We can add more and more to it, but we just want to do it in a way
that we can step back and look at the systems as they're being pressure tested to see how they're working. I was ⁓ working with a company that I was advising and they had kind of created a mess. What they had done is they had systems that were working, they were using influencers to market their business, they had three influencers, life was great, everything was good, and they took the guru's advice to go for the
the 10X baby, 10X yet, go from three influencers to 30. And look, that did not scale across platforms because all of a sudden they were dealing with different marketing platforms, social media platforms. They hadn't tested on some of these others. And as a result, it was a train wreck and they created a financial mess for themselves. They created a systems mess because the systems couldn't support what was going through there.
And basically what they did was they tried to grow too fast. They tried to 10X it before they were capable. And I think that that's one of the lies that entrepreneurs are living today, especially where they're being fed this, ⁓ 10X or just grind, just grind, baby. But we think that there's this switch that we need to turn on. And I got to tell you something, there's not a switch. It's something that comes with time.
And I see so many business owners and entrepreneurs just try to throw everything they have at it because they think they're ready. And it is a disaster. All right. So don't be in a hurry to grow your business as fast as you think you want to. ⁓ And look, I know it's easier said than done because I know that when I had my corporate VP job and I just wanted out, I was also
fearful that I was going to lose my job. I was looking for a way to do the exact same thing. How do I grow this thing faster? How do I replace my income faster? How do I do this faster? And it's very, very, the thought is cool, but it's actually hard to do in practice. It really needs constraint so that you don't just unleash just ridiculous amounts of volume.
through a system that hasn't been truly pressure tested. So think about your plumbing, think about pressure testing your business, and give yourself a little bit of a break. Don't listen to the grind culture and grow at a pace that makes sense for you and for your business. All right, Caleb, appreciate the question. And if you have a question, you can go to scottod.net forward slash ask, get your question answered, and I will see you in our next episode.