Every business owner dreams of taking their company to new heights, but scaling an early-stage business is no easy task. But with the right strategies and people, you can grow your team and scale your revenue. ベニッシュ・シャー is a startup operator, go-to-market expert, and lawyer. She helps founders bring their products to market and scale their revenue.  Benish shares strategies to document your process, hire your first marketers, and ensure your customers keep coming back.  

What’s the first thing that business owners do to scale their business?  

The big thing is about documenting the process. What we end up doing is just taking action. But the moment you hire someone–even an intern–you’ll have to explain everything from scratch. Just start a simple Google Doc and write everything down. You can always go in and change it later. You don’t need fancy tools to get started.  

How do you choose your target market?  

The big question is this: what am I making, and who will buy it? How do I know the people who are going to buy it?  

If you have a candle company and sell your candle for $20, why are you selling it for $20 when everybody else is selling it for $7? What makes your candle worth $20? Who is the person who’s going to buy this candle?  

More importantly, you have to understand if this target market is acquirable for you. For example, I was doing social strategy early in my career, and my target audience was Fortune 500 companies. But I knew no one in those companies. The target market was not acquirable for me.  

What’s the best way to start growing a new business?  

Networking. When the word ネットワーキング is used, people often think of going to networking events.  Most of the time, networking is making friends with as many people as possible and making sure you’re there for them. And if they need something you’re able to give, give it. I call it The Godfather effect. Do as many favors as possible.  So, when the time comes that you might need help, people will go out of their way to help you.  

What’s the best strategy when hiring your first marketer? 

If your business is in the early stage, you need a marketing generalist. This is somebody who understands the brand but also cares enough about data. They are people who typically stay in a company for two to three years. And then they leave because they like that initial feeling of getting their hands in everything.  

In early-stage companies, you hire people, and then you get frustrated because you feel like they’re not doing what you asked them to do. But what’s happening is you hired the wrong person to do the thing that you want them to do, but not the thing that they know how to do.  

How do you make your product “sticky”?  

The way you make your service sticky is by making it so easy to use and integrated into the daily life of your customer that it’s just a pain for them to leave you. That’s what it comes down to. But if they don’t like their account manager, they will leave. As for the content and marketing perspective, create information they truly care about and can’t find elsewhere.