According to Executive Coach Paul Piccirillo, the hardest thing for his clients to manage is not finance, but their own mindsets. To scale a business, he stressed, owners must always work on growing themselves. That will help them overcome “cultural blocks”, such as poor communication, silo thinking, conflict avoidance and blame culture.

Piccirillo was talking at Scale-up Live, capping off a run of special ICAEW webinars on how to take start-ups to the next level, featuring talks from some of the UK’s top experts on the art of scaling businesses.

ICAEW President Derek Blair and Head of Business Simon Gray drew on their experiences of launching companies in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008.

Blair cited networking and persistence as engines that pushed his practice beyond that dicey early stage and into its 21st year. Gray hailed his ACA training for keeping him focused – and was also proud to say that the business he founded is still going strong.

A clear ethos and vision

CFOs and FDs at the event outlined several crucial ingredients for a successful scale-up.

Carl Moore, CFO at rapidly scaling wellness brand Ancient + Brave, stressed that imbuing your business with a distinct ethos is a crucial pillar for scaling up. “It must impact your whole culture and drive daily decision-making,” he said. “Tone from the top is key. Don’t just ask for the behaviours you want – demonstrate them.”

For Romesh Jeyaseelanayagam, founder of The FD Consultant, scale stems from three core ingredients: a clear vision or mission; a great team structure; and a viable business model.

Understanding KPIs

Fractional CFO Anne Allibone noted that whenever she goes into a business, a vital first step is to understand its KPIs. “They will show me how the scaling is going to happen,” she said. “They’ll also indicate which types of investment the business will need and how it will pay returns.” Managing revenue and repayments requires reliable data, she noted – so it is important to review your system’s infrastructure and how its data flows work.

Consider financing options

In terms of which funding route an owner should take, Allibone said that depends on the company’s developmental stage. “Early on, it’s going to be angels – you’re unlikely to get VC or PE,” she noted. “As you scale, think about what you want to achieve. If it’s fast growth, VC or PE may help. However, if your focus is more on scaling sustainably, consider grant or institutional funding.”

Later, when the business is bigger and more credible, owners could explore rolling credit facilities and/or debt factoring. “There are options other than equity dilution,” Allibone said.

Don’t hesitate in decision-making

Moore urged owners to be bold on strategy. “In a high-growth environment, the risk premium of delay can actually be costlier than that of getting it wrong,” he said. “Don’t get stuck in decision paralysis, where you always want to make sure you’re 100% right.”

Learn as you go

One speaker who embodied virtues of constant self-growth was Julie Deane CBE. Joining Gray for a fireside chat, she outlined key factors behind the meteoric success of Cambridge Satchel, which she founded in 2008. After launching with a budget of just £600 and a target market of schoolchildren, the business quickly spilled over into the far larger world of global fashion. Within five years, it was valued at £40m.

“I was obsessed with making money to send my children to a good school,” she said of her motivation. “I was learning how to do everything myself because the budget wasn’t big and I didn’t want to go into debt. So I learned how to code and how to box products in a certain way when we started selling to Urban Outfitters in the US. That kept me focused.”

Find ways to remove chaos

Amid current economic uncertainty, many business owners will be desperate to scale, but feel so besieged by daily financial obstacles that their thoughts are cluttered and chaotic, making the path ahead hard to see.

Deane urged owners to find ways to “take the chaos out”. Recalling a crunch time when Cambridge Satchel fired its main manufacturer over a serious breach of trust, Deane said: “I had 20,000 customers who had ordered and paid for satchels. I was getting 2,000 emails a day saying, ‘Where’s my bag?’ My way to take the chaos out was to focus on continuing to make the bags. But I found other hacks, too, like Apple Signatures and Text Expander, which enabled me to write and send large volumes of email replies, based on format templates.”

She added: “Sometimes, that’s what you have to find – not the way the industry does it and not the way the corporate job you stopped doing does it. Just think of another way.”

Build a solid structure and think long-term

Speaking to Insights, Dequan Walker, CFO at Scale-up Live sponsor Marsh International Affinity, said: “There’s a lot of volatility in the market and finding investors who are willing to take a chance on your business may be more difficult at this point in time. So, as a lot of our speakers pointed out, structure is key and having that long-term strategy. It’s your job to convince these investors that they should bet on you. You want to give them comfort.”

ICAEW Business Engagement Manager Caroline Wigham says: “Scale-Up Live was an excellent opportunity to bring members together to connect with and learn from each other, while being inspired by our host of expert speakers. It was fantastic to see so much energy in the room.”

Find all the webinars in our Scale-up Series here.