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Zig Number 3—Adding Scale

The third zig is about adding scale to your undertaking. After getting to cash and then adding resources and processes, you need to add scale to get your product or services to the masses. In simple terms, scale is something that can be published or duplicated or sold over and over again. Think about the music industry as an example. There are amazingly talented studio musicians who get hired to play for top recording artists. They come into the studio, lay down their tracks, get a check for an awful lot of money, and then go on to their next gig. They live a good life, making more than most of us. The trouble is their check is a one-time payment. On the other hand, the artist who writes and records the song gets a royalty every time the song is downloaded, sold at Wal-Mart, or played on the radio. Through scaling their talents and business strategies, recording artists get lots and lots of checks for an awful lot of money—and live a great life!

Business gets really fun for me when I can make money while I’m sleeping, or on vacation, or working on my next project. I remember the first time this happened for me. I was laid up in bed for what I knew was going to be a few weeks, so I came up with a little business idea, threw together a website, worked my search engine optimization magic, and went to bed. I got up the next morning, brushed my teeth, checked the website, and found I had made $37.50—while I had been asleep! (That number got bigger as the days went on.) Scale is what allows me to do that.

My colleagues and I often use the phrase “Nail it, then scale it.” What we mean is that during the first two zigs and zags, you’re really trying to figure out how to nail your business. You’re figuring out the discipline, the effort, and the processes that will make it work. In zig number 1, you are figuring out how to get to profitability. In zag number 2, you are adding resources. In zig number 3, you need to figure out a model that you can replicate quickly and get your product out to the masses. This is the “scaling it” part.

When I’ve talked or written about this concept, I’ve offended several members of my family because I summarize my ideas by stating, “I never want to be a doctor and certainly never a lawyer!” My point is not to offend my brother, who is a very successful doctor. My point is that doctors have to put on their literal rubber gloves and poke at some very tender places, and attorneys have to put on their figurative rubber gloves and poke in some dark places. Otherwise, neither one is making money. I don’t want to do that. I like making money beyond the time that I am physically and/or mentally working.

There are alternatives most of us can pursue, though. I have a good friend who is a dentist. He’s told me several times about a really great product he wants to develop that would make it so much easier to fill cavities. He has lamented that he just doesn’t have enough time to work on this because he is stuck drilling and filling teeth all day long. He feels he has no options, but I’ve explained that the option is to zigzag. He already has a business with a solid cash flow. He just needs to add resources—and then scale.

One way would be to bring another dentist into his practice so he could take Fridays off to work on creating his new product. He could then join forces with other local practices to build a channel or infrastructure to test and promote his new product. When that has proven successful, he could create an online presence. When we talked about his options, my friend was amazed that he could take control of his own destiny and move from the constrained “I’m going to spend the rest of my life drilling teeth” mind-set to the “I can actually pursue my beacon in the fog” mind-set.

While others see limitations, I see examples of scale all around me. I found one while attending a retreat being run by a well-known chiropractor. This man is clearly an exceptionally talented chiropractor who had become very profitable in his practice. He then added resources and staff and was able to add several additional offices to his practice. Then he made the big leap to scale. He compiled his own set of processes that worked in his business, including the equipment he used, the supplements he recommended, and the processes that made him successful. He put all of this together into a system he could sell to other chiropractors. This man is now distinctly known for his training programs among chiropractors throughout the United States. With his training program, he helps other chiropractors—and then profits when they tell their associates about what he’s done for them. But he has no direct involvement in their day-to-day businesses. This is scale.

My oldest son seems to have gotten some of my genes, which led to him getting involved in my web businesses several years ago. (He was one of my original nerdy kids who helped me move CastleWave forward.) After I sold CastleWave, he wanted to start his own business. He worked hard to follow the principles and processes he learned at CastleWave and ended up building a scalable web business of his own. He is now in Japan for two years working as an unpaid service volunteer, and he has a business that is still making money for him. While he is gone, his 17-year-old brother is the CEO of the company. He also hired his younger brother and several other smart and energized teenagers to keep his business going—and growing. They have the same values in place. They have their beacon in the fog set and are fueled with the passion of youth. As I write this, my son has been gone for 13 months, and he has a resource and an asset that will fund the remainder of his college when he returns. That is the power of scale.