Questions to Ask Before You Scale Anything
A short checklist for spotting revenue hiding in work you already do.
By James Schramko · Updated May 2026
What are you doing and not getting paid for?
When you assess for growth, you want to know how to make money really, really quickly. So the first question is this. What are you doing in your business for your clients that you are not getting paid for?
It might be something outside the scope of your service. It might be something you added on as goodwill. Perhaps a report, leads or an audit, something that provides real value for free. Might people be willing to pay for that?
I did this with a website audit in my SEO business. I used to give it away free. When I started charging for it, fewer people asked for it, and more of the ones who did became customers.
Where are you undervaluing your business?
How much is your client likely to make if your solution is just half the success you think it will be? $300,000? $400,000? If you are charging $5,000 you are seriously selling yourself short. At least 10 percent of the projected value is a fair price to ask.
Who are the wrong clients for you?
Who are the clients you should not be working for?
Do an analysis. Who are the clients you love working for, and who love working with you? Which clients bring you the most profit?
Then look at the other side. Which clients take up too much time while making you zero profit? Which clients make you wonder all the time what you are doing wrong? Who among your clients is a misery to work with?
Based on the first two steps of this framework, craft a new offer you can show to your best clients.
Then try to move your problem clients into a better situation. Charge them more. Get them to play by your rules. If all else fails, refer them to someone else.
What does your market actually want?
Look at the products or services that are your best sellers. They are what your market wants.
Go with what sells, even if it is not the thing you most want to sell. See which of your offerings people are paying for, then double down on that.
Address a real problem
A lot of businesses try to sell a product by creating or inflating a problem they can solve. The real growth potential, in B2B or B2C, is in a problem customers already have and already think about.
Know, really know, your numbers
If you do not know where you are making money and where you are losing it, you cannot expect your business to grow. For a good grasp of your numbers, look at two sides:
The business perspective
What do your cash flow and profitability look like? What expenses are coming down the pipeline? Talk with your accountant about that information.
The marketing perspective
How much have you spent on marketing? Has the spend been consistent? Know your key targets, whether that is leads or people on an email list. Know your cost per acquisition, your customer lifetime value and your lifetime profit.
Test, test, test
Imagine you could work out which ads, which emails and which campaigns worked best, then scale them. That is the growth potential. The way you find out is split testing, as fast as you can.
Note: of every 10 campaigns that go to market, likely just two or three will have a great result. That is the point of testing, to find the winners. Once you have those winners, you can double or triple down on them and reap the rewards.
Note too, you need a certain amount of volume for your testing to mean anything. Twenty cold emails over the course of three months is nothing. Think a thousand emails or more.
Do the unsexy stuff and do it well
Do the right things over the long term, however boring they seem, and do them well. That is the makings of a fast-growing business. If your offer works and gets results for your clients, refine it. Leave the shiny new venture alone.
Pick one channel and maximize
There is a lot of noise in the advertising space. One way to stand out and drive growth is to choose a marketing medium that gets straight through to your ideal end user. Focus on that one medium, cold emails for instance. Push it until people have to notice.
When the time comes, get out of your own way
A business can grow to a point where senior management roles are necessary and right. A general manager, chief of staff, chief financial officer, integrator, chief operations person. It is up to the founder to recognize that and get out of their own way. Know your own limits. Open the way for someone else, perhaps more qualified, to carry the growth of the business.
Do things in the correct order. Fix, then scale
There is no point scaling a broken business. When you have sorted out parts one to four, you can already expect extra revenue to come in. Then you can think about marketing and getting more people to buy what you have.