One of the biggest lessons I have taken away from entrepreneurship is that starting a business and growing a business are two very different challenges. A startup can initially operate through the founder’s personal involvement, informal communication, and flexible decision-making. On the other hand, as the company grows, these approaches can become difficult to maintain. In The Founder’s Dilemmas, Wasserman (2012) explains that founders face distinct challenges as their companies grow, particularly when growth requires changes to their roles, leadership structures, and relationships with employees and investors. Scaling is therefore not simply about increasing sales; it requires building an organization capable of successfully handling that growth.
One major scaling issue is people. A founder may be able to oversee a small team personally, but that becomes unrealistic as the company expands. To tie back to my interview with Susan Winter, she also touched on this topic. Susan had talked about how her customer segment is truly all over the place and does not have a certain market in the area. She has been prioritizing her customers’ needs, and when she hires employees, she ensures a good mix of personalities. New employees, managers, and departments do require clearer responsibilities, communication systems, and performance expectations. Research on scaling startups similarly emphasizes that growing companies need to develop organizational structures and management practices that can support increasing complexity.
Another major challenge is maintaining the business’s quality and identity as it expands. For my future bakery and café, I would want customers to have the same positive experience whether they visit the original location or a future second or third location. That means developing standardized recipes, training procedures, customer service expectations, inventory systems, and quality control processes. At the same time, I want to avoid standardizing the business to the point where it loses the personal, welcoming atmosphere that first interested customers in the brand.
Financial management also becomes increasingly important during growth. A business may be profitable at a small scale but still experience problems if it expands too quickly. I believe a founder needs to understand whether the business is actually ready to scale, rather than expanding simply because the opportunity is available.
As I finish this eight-week entrepreneurship course, I realize that the ultimate goal of a startup should not necessarily be to grow as quickly as possible. Susan had also given me advice on not hiring too quickly or too late at your company, and on how sustainable growth is about ensuring the business has the people, systems, finances, and leadership necessary to support its next stage. For my bakery and café, I would want growth to happen intentionally, while protecting the quality, culture, and customer experience that define the business. Scaling successfully means creating a company that can eventually operate beyond the founder’s individual efforts while still maintaining the vision that started it.
References
Nlemvo, F. (2014). The founder’s dilemmas: Anticipating and avoiding the pitfalls that can sink a startup, Noam Wasserman (Princeton University Press). Entreprendre & Innover, n° 19(3), 56–60. https://doi.org/10.3917/entin.019.0056
The founder’s dilemma: How entrepreneurs can avoid the pitfalls of growth. (2019). Harvard Business Review.
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