Years ago, I was talking to a friend's dad about wanting to own my own business. Bob had been in the business and tech worlds. Never a business owner but he had quite a bit of experience. He said one thing that stuck with me. Bob was the first person to talk about scaling a business.

"Three will get you a Mercedes According to Bob using a convenience store as an example, if you opened only one you bought a job. A job that requires a ton of overtime and you won't get paid for the over time. Opening two will get you double the over time, the same pay, and double the stress. Three will get you a general manager, less overtime and a Mercedes.

Reason 1 to Scale Your Business

Do you want to own a job or a business? If you want to own a job you might as well keep the job you have or get one. Life will be less stressful, you will have more free time and will likely lead a happier life. Scaling your business means you are not going to be doing everything in your business. Think of yourself as a knife. If the knife is used non-stop all day every day, eventually the knife gets dull and no longer cuts well. If you fail to scale you will get dull and lose some of your energy, passion and eventually your competitive advantage.

Reason 2 to Scale Your Business

As Bob said with scale you have the revenue to hire a manager. A good manager will allow you the time to work on the business. Working on the business means business growth. Business never stays the same, it is decreasing or increasing. It never stays the status quo for very long. Working on the business is critical to growth and long term sustainability.

Reason 3 to Scale Your Business

Profits are declining or inclining. Scale your business and profits will go up. As the late, great Jim Rohn said, "Wages make you a living; profits make you a fortune." If you scale your business, you will have profits and can afford the Mercedes. Not just make payments on the Mercedes but write the check and buy it.

Reason 4 to Scale Your Business

I had a client a few years back that was in real estate. He was the largest commercial real estate broker in the area. Not only a broker but he bought, sold and invested in real estate of all types personally. One of his earliest personal projects was building a 48-unit apartment complex. He said his only regret was not building 96 units. The work, stress and effort would have been the same but the profits much bigger. $100,000.00 or $1,000,000.00. Two different numbers. In reality the only difference is the number of digits and decimal places. Scale your business and move the decimal places and add some digits. The effort is the same, but the profits go up significantly.

Reason 5 to Scale Your Business

One day the time will come to exit the business. Scaling your business will increase the size of the of your business and with it the size of your asset. The larger the asset the greater the value. The greater the value the more you can sell your business for.

There is a lot of truth in what Bob said 20 years ago. Scaling your business will allow you to be a business owner, have staff and the Mercedes. Are you scaling your business?