Moving from Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue is a transition that most B2B businesses find very difficult. Many B2B and services firms are started because of the Founder’s unique personal expertise in a target market. These firms achieve initial success because the Founder has a strong personal network and becomes widely known as a go-to resource for its target customers. To create sustainable, long-term success, these organizations must be able to grow past the level of revenues that can be achieved solely by the sales efforts of the Founder.
When Founder-led companies seek to grow and scale, moving from revenue generated by the Founder to revenue generated by a sales and marketing team can prove very challenging. Non-funded companies with limited funds available to invest in sales and marketing initiatives often struggle to choose the best path to follow to grow their revenues without overspending. In this article, we will discuss these two types of revenues and share cost-effective strategies business owners can use now to help them on the journey from Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue.
What Is Founder Revenue?
Simply put, Founder Revenue means revenue that is brought into the firm through the connections and selling activities of the Founder. Founders often wear many hats and their selling hat is generally the one that makes or breaks their firm in the early stages.
Once a firm achieves a level of success that proves its business model, the next challenge is continuing to grow the business in a repeatable, predictable, and profitable way. Founder Revenue can only take a growing business so far and companies must begin the transition to a different method of selling to grow and prosper.
What Is Scalable Revenue?
Having a scalable business means the firm has developed the capacity to predictably grow and meet increased customer demand by cost-effectively using resources over time. Achieving Scalable Revenue means the company has successfully implemented a predictable, repeatable sales methodology to continuously attract and close new customers to grow the firm profitably over the long term.
Achieving Scalable Revenue requires incorporating people and programs into an overall sales and marketing strategy that works effectively for the business and is not dependent only on the selling capabilities of the Founder.
Challenges in Moving From Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue
One of the biggest challenges companies face in moving from Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue is resisting the urge to implement programs that appear to work for other companies but may not be right for their particular business.
For young companies without name recognition or ongoing forms of engagement with their target audience, money spent on traditional Lead Generation programs generally produce little, if any, return on investment. Cold forms of outreach like appointment setting, email blasts, and pay-per-click advertising may seem like a good way to outsource selling efforts but are likely to result in wasted spending for Founder-led firms.
Another common challenge in moving from Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue is bringing on a sales team before the company is ready for it. Recruiting, hiring, and managing salespeople is a costly undertaking. If the proper tools and infrastructure are not in place to set the sales team up for success, the financial drain on a young company can be devastating.
Sales teams work best when companies have ways to track and measure interactions with customers and prospects. Companies will see a stronger ROI when they can provide their sales teams access to an engaged, targeted audience who understand the company’s message and are highly likely to engage in the selling process.
How Can You Begin to Scale Revenue On a Limited Budget?
The adage that you must walk before you can run definitely applies as firms begin the transition from Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue. As a first step, consider engaging additional short-term resources, like a part-time virtual assistant. This resource can provide administrative support to the Founder to help maximize the effectiveness of the time spent on selling and relationship-building activities.
Also, instead of engaging full-time sales or marketing resources immediately, a more cost-effective interim solution can be to start with part-time sales resources. Look for candidates with a strong network of personal contacts that are different but complementary to those of the Founder. Use part-time sales resources to reach an incremental target audience who may already be receptive to your message to save money and provide short-term ROI until a broader strategy is in place.
Another effective way to begin the journey from Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue is to focus on increasing brand awareness and growing an engaged audience for your company’s products and services. A robust Demand Generation strategy and program based on educating and engaging with your target audience instead of focusing solely on converting and closing them is a great solution.
How Can Demand Generation Lead to Scalable Revenue?
Demand Generation strategies allow firms to connect with their target customer base through a variety of programmatic touchpoints designed to build brand awareness and develop audience engagement over time.
By leading with value and providing highly relevant, targeted educational content, companies can showcase their expertise and constantly stay top-of-mind with potential buyers. Demand Generation programs allow your target audience to purposefully interact with your firm on a regular basis.
Creating this type of ongoing engagement differentiates your firm from its competitors. People buy from people they have established a relationship with, and companies that purposefully foster relationships using Demand Generation strategies will realize Scalable Revenue from their investment in these programs.
FounderScale Can Help You Grow From Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue
FounderScale specializes in Demand Generation and is uniquely positioned to help Founders move from Founder Revenue to Scalable Revenue. Our Demand Generation services can help you develop and execute a sound financial strategy to build Scalable Revenue through programs, campaigns, and events that keep you top-of-mind when your audience is ready to buy. Contact us for more information.
