How to Know You’re Ready to Scale and What to Do First
- Brainz Magazine
- Sep 2
- 5 min read
Lauren Lea Fenn-Ellis, founder and CEO of OBM Associates, leads a globally trusted business management agency. Named a Top 10 Disruptive Entrepreneur, she helps founders scale with clarity, strategy, and operational excellence.
There’s a moment in every founder’s journey when the very success you’ve worked so hard for starts creating friction. It’s not that things are going wrong; it’s that they’re going too right to keep going the way they are.
You’re booked out. Sales are coming in. But behind the scenes, you’re scrambling. Systems are cracking. You’re still the one holding the threads together, and that’s your sign.
Welcome to the tipping point.
What the tipping point actually looks like
It’s not just about growing revenue. It’s about growing responsibility and whether your business can keep up.
You’re constantly firefighting behind the scenes.
Onboarding new clients or team members feels chaotic.
Your systems can’t keep up with demand (or don’t exist).
You can’t take a real break without feeling like everything might fall apart.
You’re the bottleneck for approvals, decisions, and progress.
This is growth friction, and it’s trying to tell you something.
Signs you’re scaling without a safety net
Not sure if you’re at that tipping point yet? Here’s what to look for:
You’ve crossed six figures, but you’re working more than ever and living in your inbox.
Your team is constantly asking, “What should I do next?” because nothing’s displayed and prioritized in one central place.
Revenue is climbing, but so is your stress level. The demand is there, the vision is big, but you’re stuck. Growth is happening, but it doesn’t feel sustainable.
You’re turning down opportunities because, deep down, you know your backend would crumble under more demand.
You have a team, but you’re still the bottleneck, approving, answering, and chasing every little thing.
You’re firefighting, not forward-planning. You want to be in your visionary seat, but the day-to-day pulls you back in every time.
Your tech stack can’t keep up, and you’re patching it together with manual workarounds and calling team members to pick up odd steps in the process.
You’ve started hiring out of panic, not strategy, and now you’re managing more people without getting more off your plate.
You’re exhausted, but the fear of losing control stops you from letting go and handing things off. You’re micromanaging, not because you want to, but because there’s no trustworthy structure yet.
If any of these sound familiar, this is your sign that it’s time to shift.
Scaling doesn’t start with sales – It starts with systems
Most business owners wait to build systems until things start breaking. But by the time you’re overwhelmed, it’s already costing you energy, time, and often, your reputation.
There’s a common belief that once you hit a certain sales milestone, you’ll earn the right to invest in structure and team. But sales without systems don’t scale; they stall.
Because what happens when the sales actually start rolling in?
Clients are waiting longer because delivery isn’t streamlined.
You’re stuck in your inbox, juggling team questions and client needs.
You’re closing more deals but dropping the ball on follow-through.
You hire help, but spend all your time training them in your head because nothing’s documented.
The dream of scaling turns into a daily scramble to stay afloat. And this is where a lot of businesses get stuck. They add fuel, more marketing, more team members, more offers, without building the container to hold it.
And the result? Burnout. Turnover. Missed opportunities.
If you’re serious about sustainable growth, your backend has to be built before the front end explodes.
When we step into a client’s business, these are the core areas we get working like clockwork so they can scale without the stress:
Documented, repeatable processes – especially for delivery, onboarding, and communication. If it happens more than once, it shouldn’t live in your head. We make sure it’s documented, accessible, and consistent.
A project management tool your whole team actually uses – not just a pretty dashboard, but a working hub for tasks, timelines, and updates. We set it up, integrate it, and train the team to make it part of their daily flow.
Clear role ownership – not just job titles, but clarity on outcomes, decisions, and responsibilities. Everyone knows what “done well” looks like without having to check in with you.
An internal structure that can grow with you – think containers, not chaos. We design systems that flex with volume, not collapse under pressure.
Systems aren’t a reward for success. They’re the reason you’ll survive it.
Strengthen what’s working
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as my business has grown? Even when you have a brilliant, loyal team, sometimes you need to invite in a fresh perspective.
My marketing team has been with me for a couple of years now. They know the business, they know my voice, and they’ve supported so much of our growth. But recently, I felt like we needed something more, not because the team wasn’t delivering, but because I knew I needed to challenge my thinking and open the door to new ideas.
That’s when I brought in some additional support, someone who could look at what we were doing with fresh eyes, ask different questions, and offer new strategies. It wasn’t about replacing anyone or shaking things up for the sake of it. It was about getting that board-of-directors-style input, someone on the outside who could see things we were too close to spot.
And honestly? Those conversations have been game-changing. Even when I’m not sure exactly what I want from that extra support, just having another voice at the table helps spark ideas, highlight gaps, and push me to think bigger.
Because here’s the truth:
You can have an amazing team and still benefit from external insights.
Sometimes, it takes someone outside the day-to-day to see what’s really going on.
Fresh perspectives don’t replace your team; they empower your team to level up alongside you.
So if you’re feeling like something’s missing or you’re ready to break through to that next stage, consider this your permission to bring in that fresh pair of eyes, a strategic partner, a trusted advisor, or even just a one-off session with someone who can help you zoom out and see the bigger picture.
The space between survival and scale
The thing is, scaling can feel like standing on the edge of something both exciting and terrifying. You’re proud of how far you’ve come, but you know deep down, you can’t keep growing like this.
In fact, you might even feel like burning it all down and starting over. We see it all the time.
But most of the time, you don’t need to blow it up, you just need to streamline and systematise.
We’ve stepped into businesses on the brink, put the right systems and structure in place, and not only saved them but tripled their revenue.
If you’re ready to scale sustainably and want the systems, tools, and real-life strategies that make it possible, join my newsletter. This is where I share the backend moves that help CEOs get out of the weeds and back into their zone of genius.
Read more from Lauren Lea Fenn-Ellis
Lauren Lea Fenn-Ellis, Agency Founder and Fractional COO
Lauren Lea Fenn-Ellis is the founder and CEO of OBM Associates, a globally trusted business management agency supporting high-growth entrepreneurs. With nearly two decades of operational leadership experience, Lauren and her team partner with visionary founders to scale intentionally through strategic systems, high-performing teams, and operations designed for clarity, efficiency, and scale. Named one of the Top 10 Disruptive Entrepreneurs, her work turns operational friction into focused momentum. For founders who are ready to step out of the day-to-day and into confident, sustainable leadership, OBM Associates builds the structure that sets them free.
