If you have been in business as a service provider and have mastered your business, a way to scale the operations to drive profitability is to acquire or lead other solo practitioners or small practices. The reasons for making this move would be ideal because of the following:
- Your ability to lead. There are other service providers that like the idea of their independence, however, they struggle to win business or grow their own. They have a leadership gap. Your leadership to help them would be an immense asset to help them grow.
- You have systems. Over time and with discipline, you have created processes and systems for getting the work done. The resources are assets which would be difficult for someone else to put together. This can be a combination of technologies, equipment and documentation that helps you guide a team of people to efficiently execute. Access to these systems make work easier for someone struggling with fulfillment.
- You can sell. Other sole proprietors or practitioners may be more suited as a technician in your industry. If you can sell and develop relationships then the partnership with those that can help get the work done makes a combination of your talents worthwhile for growing revenue for everyone involved.
The strategy for growing your own services business by acquiring or partnering with other service providers that are lacking some of the pieces for growing their own business should be approached with careful thought and tact. It’s difficult for someone who is independent and values freedom to think about giving up their freedom.
What is of utmost importance is to understand what they value, which is likely freedom. Show them how they might retain what is important while gaining an advantage by working within your offense and systems. The pieces of value such as a pipeline of business, technical knowledge and existing systems need to be laid out with some kind of quantification of value.
Adding new team members that are likely senior is a great opportunity to test the robustness of your own systems and processes. If you have your documentation and systems put together well, then new team members should be able to get trained, use your systems and be productive quickly.
The process of acquisition can then be repeated to grow again. You have to sell the value of your systems and have complementary value pieces to add to each other to make such growth work.
If you are considering this exciting way to grow your service business, feel free to contact me to explore how to create the systems and process for expanding your business.
What are your thoughts?
