In a recent newsletter, executive coach Todd Herman explained the typical growth stages of a business. Before leaving the build-up stage, operations should have been systematized and you will start feeling like you’re no longer the hamster on the wheel. One of the most common experiences for the business owner at this stage is more time! Remember that? But you can only move on to the scale-up stage once you’ve built a solid infrastructure and you’re confident you can grow the business without breaking it. This transition point is scary because it requires you to invest time, resources, and money on attracting talented people into your business. In turn, your profit percentage will decrease (those people and systems cost money), but your revenues should grow because of the increased working capacity of the team.The objective of the scale-up stage is to build a system where you’re getting a smaller percentage of a growing revenue pie. In the end, you’ll put more money in your pocket. But this whole concept falls apart if you’re not able to recruit and develop talented individuals. Your personal performance and execution skills got you through the build-up stage. Your personal leadership skills will be what gets you through the scale-up stage. If you’re starting to scale-up, you must make the execution to leadership transition. Or, you’ll fail.