It’s a big jump from startup to full-scaleup. And it’s more than a matter of simply growing the business or hiring more people – it’s about scaling your infrastructure, scaling the culture, and scaling the strategy to manage and operate at a level of scale and complexity far beyond anything you’ve known. Having a sense of what the key steps are and what the challenges will be can set you up for success if you are planning for it.

Define Your Goals

In the early days, companies were frequently animated by a visionary founder or a small, cohesive group of people united by a common purpose. As you scale more and more, that original vision and mission have to be crystal clear and exist throughout an increasing number of employees. That company boot camp could encompass everyone from novices to veterans, all learning what a business stands for.

Take a company like Airbnb, which began as a rental marketplace for air mattresses but ultimately aspired to build a global travel community. As it continued to expand, they wanted to make sure all employees felt they were part of that shared larger mission, which created unity in everything they were doing.

Build a Strong Team

Your team must grow as your company grows. But scaleup hiring is not the same as startup hiring. Originally, you may have expected the people in the back row with varied talents who would be happy to help out wherever they can. Now what you need is specialists who can do specific things and provide leadership.

Consider Slack, for example. Because they began with employees who were highly skilled in their respective domains, they managed to grow successfully. From customer support to engineering, Slack made sure that they brought on board individuals who were not just excellent in their domains but also fit the company culture. This helped them successfully handle growth and make every team work with high efficiency levels.

Invest in Infrastructure

Ensuring that your internal infrastructure will be able to sustain the expansion in operations is one of the most important facets of building a company. Perhaps you began with basic technologies for project management, communications, and financial tracking. To manage the complexity that results from growth, though, you will need to have sound systems in place as your company grows, often supported by scalable solutions and talent sourced at competitive offshore development rates.

One of the greatest examples of a company that has expanded successfully is most likely Amazon, which built its own internal software solutions to handle everything from stock to customer service. They were able to act as a huge international business so well because they had the scalability in their software to do so.

Standardize Processes and Keep Innovation

Process standardization throughout your company is needed when you’re scaling. It keeps everything in the same fashion, from manufacturing workflows to customer service processes. This consistency is key to making sure quality and productivity are in place as you scale out the team.

Standardization is not at the cost of originality or creativity, though. Although Spotify’s innovative and experimental nature was not lost even after they had implemented scalable routines and procedures for all their teams, they kept their core business processes intact. They continued to evolve, adding new features and exploring new business models.

Focus on Customer Experience

As you continue to grow, it gets more challenging to personally know all of your customers, but as you’re growing, providing an extraordinary customer experience is more critical than ever. Offering outstanding customer service is one of the best means to ensure loyalty from customers, and word-of-mouth and repeat business can be an enormous driver of growth.

Look at Zappos, for instance, which has built its brand around great customer service. They realized that good client relationships would be essential to long-term success as they expanded. Zappos gave its customer service reps the freedom to go above and beyond by frequently providing customers with free returns or personalized solutions. In addition to retaining current clients, this generated resoundingly positive reviews and referrals.

Maintain a Financial Strategy

Startups do operate on limited capital, and therefore, careful planning and frugal spending are essential. Scaling up is about achieving a balance between the need to spend on growth and the financial conservatism of the startup phase. This can be achieved by raising additional capital, entering into strategic partnerships, or plowing profits back into the business.

One of the companies that has had to balance on this tightrope of growth and massive investment is Tesla. To grow their infrastructure and production of electric cars, they were initially reliant to a large degree on external investment. Once they had achieved a certain point, though, they were able to bring in enough revenue to fund their growth while still investing profit in developing new technologies.

Consider Marketing Strategy

Your startup marketing strategy was perhaps more organic and experimental, relying on word-of-mouth or social media. However, as you grow, you will have to make your marketing more targeted, data-driven, and organized. You will have to build a brand that resonates with a wider audience while maintaining the authenticity that initially helped you succeed.

Dollar Shave Club’s success at creating entertaining, memorable content fueled its explosive growth, along with its subscription model. To cut through a crowded market, they leveraged humor, viral marketing, and social media. As they expanded, however, they increased their investment in partnerships and sponsorships.

Follow Market Trends

At the startup stage, maybe your primary focus was building your product or service. However, as you start to grow, you need to constantly monitor competitors and industry trends. This will enable you to stay ahead of any possible pitfalls and alter your business plan accordingly.

Netflix’s shift from DVD rentals to streaming was guided by an insightful understanding of the way technology and entertainment are changing. They were forward-thinking, moving into their own streaming early and then developing original programming to set themselves apart from other services instead of simply following what other companies were doing.