How to Scale a Company and Still Maintain Work-Life Balance

January 18th 2025

We hear a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners talk about “scaling.” Scaling a business is a goal for many because it involves increasing revenue faster than expenses. 

As SCORE’s Anita Campbell explains, “Scalability is about capacity and capability.  Does your business have the capacity to grow? Will your business systems, infrastructure, and team be able to accommodate growth?”

Typically, growth comes through increasing revenue by increasing production, adding employees, and addressing other capacity constraints, such as space, raw materials, shipping, etc. But revenue and expenses frequently rise in parallel – the more you sell, the more resources you need to invest to make that happen.

Scaling, however, is all about increasing capacity and sales without having to ramp up other aspects of the business. This is frequently accomplished through automation and other technology that can replace outdated and labor-intensive manual processes.

So, how can you scale and still have some semblance of a personal life? It’s challenging, to be sure, but possible if you plan for it. 

The first step is defining what scaling looks like to you.

How big do you want to scale?

Although scaling is appealing simply because sales can increase exponentially, the fast pace of growth can be extremely stressful. Yes, you can make a lot of money but at what cost? 

Maintaining control of growth is hard, so it’s smart to plan how quickly you want to grow. And you may not necessarily want to work 24/7 for the next year to make it happen.

Set realistic growth goals, keeping in mind the lifestyle you want and the other commitments and relationships you have.

Think about how you could grow your company without having to work around the clock. What would that look like? What is a stretch-but-doable revenue target? Are there certain aspects of the company you could expand that would generate more revenue without requiring a lot more of your time?

Systematize and automate

At the heart of scaling are systems and processes that make it possible to do more in less time. Automation is another key aspect of scaling, as a tool that helps you get more done with less human involvement—that’s how you increase sales without having to hire more employees.

For example, introducing a customer service chatbot on your website to help customers find answers to simple questions would be one automation tool.

Identify which processes have the biggest impact on the business. Those are the ones you should aim to automate first.

If shipping is a potential bottleneck in your business, explore how you could speed that process up. Do you need a better labeling system? A better-organized inventory system? Or something else?

On top of technology tools, think about how you can speed up your workforce.

One of the best tools for that is the creation of standard operating procedures (a.k.a. SOPs). SOPs are written instructions for how to complete a task, as developed by people on your team who are responsible for that task. With each employee completing a task the same way, your process will inevitably become faster. Not only that, but SOPs help standardize quality.

Delegate every task that doesn’t require your involvement

As the business owner or leader, you get the final say on how your company is run. But that doesn’t mean that you have to personally do everything. In fact, you should be working in the business as little as possible.

Your role is strategic, big picture.

You get to plan how your company will grow, what products and services you’ll sell and to whom, when your business is open, who you’ll hire, and every other decision that drives your business’ growth.

However, once you map out your growth plan, you can assign other people to execute it. You don’t personally have to write every blog post, for example. You don’t have to package every shipment. You don’t have to take every sales call, depending on how large your team is, of course.

As you grow, you can bring on freelancers or retain firms to fill in gaps so that you can step back from those activities and leave them in the hands of trained professionals.

Build a team

The more you delegate tasks to others, the more you discover that there are other individuals even more capable than you are to manage those tasks.

You may start adding workers faster.

Of course, the more new hires you bring in, the more you may disrupt the culture you’ve established. So don’t hire too quickly. Be methodical, adding new capabilities only when you recognize that your company’s growth is being hampered by a lack of support staff.

Early on, each new personality has the potential to wreak havoc on what you’ve built, so hire slowly and only after you’ve confirmed others can see that person fits your company culture.

It is much easier to teach skills than it is to mold someone to fit your corporate culture. Let your other workers help decide who will be the best addition to your staff.

Set boundaries

As your business scales, you’ll need to say “no” more often to ensure your business doesn’t overrun your life. To maintain time for non-business activities, you’ll need to set boundaries.

Some entrepreneurs use time blocking to plan how they will spend each hour of their day, starting with carving out time for family and friends. For example, if you are a volunteer one day a week at a dog rescue, you’ll want to start planning your week by putting that on your schedule first. Whatever is going on in the business that day will need to stop or get put aside once your volunteer time arrives.

Or maybe you’ve committed to your partner or children that you’ll be home for dinner each night. That means leaving work by a certain hour each day and not scheduling meetings that go past that to protect that time.

If your biggest challenges come from clients rather than family, you may need to alert customers that you are not available to them after a certain hour of the day or on weekends. Then, don’t respond to their texts or answer their calls. Demonstrate that you have prioritized personal time.

Carve out and then protect time each day for people and activities that have nothing to do with work. 

Choose new opportunities carefully

It is easy to get pulled in the direction of growth for revenue’s sake.

The faster you see your sales increase, the more growth you want to achieve. However, not all growth is good growth, and not all opportunities are a good fit for your business.

Sure, they may generate revenue, but if they will stress your employees or require you to provide more hands-on oversight, they may not be worth it.

The whole concept of scaling is that your business will grow without requiring more of your direct involvement. Don’t go backward just to boost revenue. It’s not sustainable long-term.

Look for passive income opportunities more than anything, and say no to opportunities that will only propel you forward if you invest more of your personal time.

That won’t support work-life balance.

Commit to regular self-care

Your overall well-being will determine how successful your business is.

As a leader, if you are wiped out, stressed, and stretched to the limit, your business cannot grow, and it certainly cannot scale.

To be able to lead a fast-growth venture, you need to be clear-headed, energized, and optimistic. You won’t be that if you’re spending too many hours at work and not taking care of yourself.

On a daily basis, make sure you are building breaks into your schedule so that you get up and walk around and have conversations with other people. A business is a community, and you should aim to be part of it.

Schedule time to take care of yourself, whether that’s a regular workout, massage, or nap. You know what your body needs to perform at its best, so make sure your schedule is built around that.

Be realistic with yourself about what you can get done in a day, a week, or a quarter. This is a marathon and not a sprint.

Creating a business life that supports a personal life is the only way to scale effectively.