In a previous post we discussed the differences between Freelancer and Entrepreneur.
The fundamental difference is about succeeding in scaling the activity.
Scalability is difficult. In the book Founders at work: stories of startups’ early days, which accounts many stories of IT and internet startups, most if not all stories revolve about the problem of physical scaling, e.g. servers and databases. When a service becomes successful, a single server is not enough; you need more, and then the scalability problems start, because you need to synchronize everything seamlessly. Those startups that succeeded managed their scaling problem quickly and efficiently enough.
Similarly, many startups need to overcome the process scalability problem: how to reproduce, or model, a successful pattern of work set by the founder.
Because scaling is indeed a very difficult problem, some people just decide it is better to avoid it. For example, in the field of consulting, Alan Weiss (author of “million dollar consulting” and many other bestsellers) is adamant that it is much better to work for one’s own rather than bother trying to manage others or trying to scale into a full-fledged consulting practice. He prefers to have alliances and subcontractors when he needs more production power.
The problem is that by avoiding the scaling issue, you will never effectively build an entity that will have a life of its own (you will never be an ‘Entrepreneur’). You will not benefit from the value of leveraging a group of diverse talents to achieve a given goal. You will not be able to spread geographically, or to touch a large number of people with your great service or message. In brief, you will fall short of your potential impact on the world.
So, scalability is a problem that should be dealt with upfront, together with the business plan or other planning considerations for the new venture. A scaling plan needs to be put in place so that the infrastructure, the organization, the processes, take into account scalability from the beginning.
Don’t shunt this step out of the preparation. Work out your scaling plan today!
