From Startup to Scale-Up: The Foundational Systems Essential for Growth

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I was recently talking to a young, brilliant entrepreneur who is developing a SaaS product that incorporates Ai. His product is innovative and solves a real need in the market he serves. He has secured funding for his startup. He just launched his first paid pilot. He is killin’ it on so many levels.  

And his monthly newsletter was a powerpoint presentation attached to an email.

Now don’t get me wrong. As I said, he is killin’ it on many levels. But this one little detail was the basis of our conversation, because it was the tell that he hadn’t yet set himself up in this area to scale his business.

There are many reasons businesses hit a roadblock as they attempt to scale– from leadership and team limitations, cash flow challenges, misalignment of sales and marketing strategies–there are any number of other factors. In this case, he had yet to put a foundational system in place that would help his business grow, namely, a CRM with marketing automation that would allow him to add people to a list (and allow them to unsubscribe), send a newsletter in email format, and track his analytics so he knows who is interested in his offering. 

When you have a small team, it can be challenging to fully utilize all the features or track detailed metrics like a dedicated manager would—such as a marketing manager in this case. However, by putting the right systems in place early, you’ll have a solid foundation that will support your growth. When the time comes to delegate these tasks to a specialized person or team, the system and valuable historical data will already be established, ensuring a smooth transition and continued scalability.

So, what are the other foundational systems a business needs in order to set themselves up to scale? Here’s a quick checklist: 

  • Financial Management System
    • Accounting Software: Implementing a reliable accounting system (e.g. Quickbooks) to track income, expenses, profitability and cash flow are essential. The more you can automate invoicing, payment tracking, and financial reporting from the beginning the easier your life will be and you will be ensuring you have the ability to manage your finances as your business grows. 
    • Budgeting and Forecasting: Create a system to regularly review your budget and forecast your financial needs to help you manage your cash flow. This will ensure your business can fund growth initiatives.
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
    • A CRM (e.g., HubSpot) helps organize and track interactions with customers and prospects. This is crucial for maintaining relationships, automating marketing, and ensuring that as the business grows, customer engagement remains consistent and scalable. It also creates visibility across your team, as all of the data is not stuck in one person’s email. 
  • Sales and Marketing Automation
    • Automated marketing tools (e.g., email campaigns, social media scheduling) and sales systems (e.g., lead scoring, follow-up sequences) streamline customer acquisition. This allows the business to scale without needing to proportionally increase the sales and marketing team size. 
  • Customer Support System
    • A help desk or ticketing system (e.g., HubSpot, Zendesk) allows for consistent and scalable customer support. As the business grows, customer inquiries can be handled efficiently, ensuring high satisfaction and streamlined communication. Integrated CRM stacks like HubSpot allow you to keep all customer data integrated seamlessly and can add functionality as you need it, including hubs for Sales, Marketing, Operations, Commerce, Service, and Content. Choose one that can grow with you. If you see a pattern here, you’re right. HubSpot is awesome, I started working with them in 2010 so have history, experience, and affinity. Talk to me and we can explore if it’s a good solution for you.
  • Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
    • Documenting workflows and processes early on ensures that tasks are done consistently and efficiently, even as new team members are added. SOPs make it easier to train new employees, delegate tasks, and ensure quality control across departments. Creating templates for your SOPs will simplify the process of documentation.
  • Project Management System
    • I’m a sucker for great organization, and it’s essential for scaling and keeping you sane. Tools like Wrike (my personal favorite) or Asana help track tasks, manage deadlines, and organize projects, and again, tame the deadly email inbox. A centralized system for managing work ensures transparency, accountability, and efficiency, which becomes critical as the business scales and teams grow. If you are managing projects via email you are wasting a significant amount of time due to delayed responses, searching for information, having redundant conversations, etc. This is a hill I will die on. There are free versions of many project management tools, so there’s no reason to waste time when that’s the one variable you can’t control. 
  • Communication and Collaboration Tools
    • Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Workspace are essential for fostering seamless internal communication and collaboration, especially if your team is remote or hybrid. “But I’d rather just get more email” said no one EVER. Make life easier on yourself and your business and do it from the beginning. And when you integrate these tools into your Project Management System, you save even more time and frustration.
  • Human Resources Management System (HRMS)
    • Implementing an HR system to manage employee onboarding, payroll, benefits, and performance reviews (e.g., BambooHR) ensures that HR processes are handled efficiently. This is important as the team grows and the business needs to track compliance and employee development. Even before you’re ready to scale, ensure you are in compliance with HR laws and regulations when you hire your first employee. There are many resources available such as state-level Small Business Associations (Like my favorite SBAM in my home state of Michigan!), Chambers of Commerce, or HR consultants. 
  • Inventory and Supply Chain Management
    • If you have physical products, you must have a systematic and efficient way to manage your inventory. As you scale, it will be essential to centralize and automate as much of this process as possible, so having an inventory management system (e.g. ShipBob) early on helps track stock levels, manage suppliers, and streamline fulfillment. This ensures that as demand increases, supply chain operations can keep pace without delays or shortages. 
  • IT and Cybersecurity
    • This can be the bane of your existence as a small business owner. You just want your technology to work, right? But also, as the business grows, so do the risks associated with data breaches or system failures. Implementing strong cybersecurity measures, cloud storage solutions, and a reliable IT infrastructure early on ensures smooth scaling while protecting company data and customer information. Additionally, if your business handles sensitive data such as Personal Identifiable Information (PPI), needs HIPPA or FERPA or other compliance, you need to make sure that any system that houses or transfers that data is also compliant. If you don’t have the expertise in-house, this may be a good area to outsource. 
  • Legal and Compliance System
    • Implementing legal agreements (e.g., contracts, employee handbooks, NDAs) and ensuring compliance with local, state, or federal regulations from the start can prevent costly legal issues as the business scales. Again, your state-level Small Business Associations and Chambers of Commerce have great resources available until you’re ready to hire a legal firm of your own. 
  • Goal Setting Framework: OKRs
    • Setting up a framework for tracking goals and performance, such as OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) or another goal-setting framework, helps align the team with business objectives. Goals should be clearly articulated and a system in place to achieve them throughout the organization, with all team members understanding their part in doing so. This system promotes accountability and drives focused growth as the company scales.
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Reporting
    • Establishing a system to track KPIs and generate regular reports ensures that the business can monitor performance and identify areas for improvement. These metrics can guide decisions around sales, marketing, operations, and customer satisfaction, and provide information to potential investors. 

While it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day overwhelm of running a business, spending the time to get these foundational systems in place, even at a beginner’s level, will allow for sustainable growth. As your business grows, these systems will not only save you time and frustration, but will allow you to bring on new team members, track progress, and continue to innovate seamlessly–and avoid potential roadblocks down the line.

Oh, and that brilliant entrepreneur? He just sent out his first newsletter via HubSpot. He’s killin’ it. 

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