Your business needs to grow. You know that. But every time you push for more, something breaks down. Your team maxes out. Cash gets tight. Or you find yourself stuck in the middle of every decision, unable to step back.
The real issue isn’t a lack of drive. It’s a lack of clarity. Most business owners can’t see exactly where they stand right now. And without that picture, planning for growth becomes guesswork.
We built the Business Scaling Template to fix that problem. It’s a hands-on workbook that walks you through your current state, helps you spot what’s slowing you down, and guides you toward a real 90-day action plan.
Here’s how to put it to work.
Business Snapshot
You can’t scale what you don’t understand. The Business Snapshot gives you a clear look at where things stand today. Everything else in the template builds from this foundation.
Revenue and Profitability
Write down your monthly revenue, profit, and margins for three points in time: a year ago, six months ago, and now. Don’t stress about getting the numbers perfect. Ballpark figures work fine here. What you’re looking for is the trend.
A few questions worth asking:
- Is your revenue outpacing your costs? Or are you grinding harder just to stay in place?
- How much of your income comes from repeat customers or subscriptions versus one-time sales?
- Are your margins holding steady, shrinking, or getting better over time?
Team and Capacity
List out your team by department or function. For each area, write down how many people you have, how many hours they work each week, and whether they’re running at full capacity. This exercise shows you where you’re stretched too thin and where you might have some breathing room.
Systems and Processes
This section has a simple checklist. Work through it honestly. If most of the boxes stay empty, your business might not be ready to handle major growth yet. That’s not a knock against you. It just tells you where to put your energy first.
Bottleneck Identifier
Every growing business hits a wall somewhere. Something limits your progress more than anything else. The Bottleneck Identifier helps you figure out what that thing is. It usually falls into one of three buckets: People, Process, or Cash.
Go through each statement and rate it from 1 to 5. Trust your gut. Your first answer is usually the right one.
People Constraints pop up when you’re saying no to work because you’re short-staffed. They show up when your best employees are burning out. And they’re obvious when every decision has to run through you before anything moves forward.
Process Constraints look different. You’ll notice them when quality depends on who does the work. Or when your team keeps reinventing solutions for problems they’ve solved before. Is there manual tasks eating up hours that could be automated? That’s a process problem too.
Cash Constraints hit when you put off investments because the money isn’t there. They show up when good opportunities pass you by because you can’t fund them. If making payroll during a slow month keeps you up at night, cash is likely your bottleneck.
Add up each section. The category with the highest score is your primary constraint. The others still matter, but this one deserves your attention first.
Assess Your Scaling Readiness
Some businesses are ready to scale. Others need more work on the basics first. The Scaling Readiness Scorecard looks at ten areas that determine whether your foundation can handle growth or whether it needs reinforcement.
Rate each factor from 1 (not in place at all) to 4 (fully established). Don’t inflate your scores. An accurate picture helps you more than a flattering one.
Here’s what your total score tells you:
- 10 to 19 (Foundation Building): Your priority right now is getting stable. Nail down your current operations before you try to grow them.
- 20 to 29 (Getting Ready): You’re making progress. Focus on the areas where you scored lowest and build those up.
- 30 to 35 (Scale Ready): Your foundation looks solid. Start mapping out your 90-day growth plan.
- 36 to 40 (Growth Mode): You’re in great shape. Move forward with confidence.
A lower score than you expected isn’t bad news. It’s useful information. Better to find out now than to scale into a mess.
90-Day Scaling Roadmap
Now that you know where you stand and what’s holding you back, you can start planning. The 90-Day Scaling Roadmap helps you break down your goals into three 30-day chunks.
Set a Clear 90-Day Goal
Write down one specific outcome you want to hit in 90 days. Make it measurable. “Grow the business” doesn’t cut it. Try something like “bring monthly recurring revenue from $50K to $65K” instead. When you can measure it, you can manage it.
Break It Into Sprints
Days 1 to 30 (Foundation): What has to happen first? Maybe you need to document a key process. Maybe you need to hire for a critical role. Maybe you need to get your cash flow under control. Handle the groundwork here.
Days 31 to 60 (Build): What can you build on top of that foundation? This might mean launching a new offer, rolling out a system, or adding capacity in a specific area.
Days 61 to 90 (Accelerate): What pushes you across the finish line? By this phase, you should have momentum. This is where results start showing up.
Keep each sprint focused. Pick three priorities at most. Assign someone to own each one. Set a deadline. A short list of things that actually get done beats a long list that collects dust.
Weekly Metrics Dashboard
The Weekly Metrics Dashboard keeps you grounded in reality. It’s easy to confuse activity with progress. The right numbers tell you whether you’re actually moving the needle.
Choose Your Key Metrics
Pick five to seven numbers that show how your business is doing. Mix in both leading indicators (things that predict what’s coming) and lagging indicators (things that confirm what already happened).
Leading indicators might include new leads, proposals sent, sales calls scheduled, or website visitors.
Lagging indicators might include revenue, profit margins, total customers, or how many people cancel each month.
Review Weekly
Block out 15 to 30 minutes each week to update your numbers. Note whether each metric is trending up, down, or flat. After a few weeks, you’ll start seeing patterns that get lost in the daily noise.
Action Summary
The Action Summary brings everything together in one place. Once you’ve worked through the full template, take a few minutes to write down:
- The most important thing you learned from the Business Snapshot
- Which bottleneck is limiting your growth the most
- What your Scaling Readiness Score means for your next moves
Then pick three things you’ll do this week. Not this quarter. Not next month. This week. Small actions taken now build more momentum than big plans saved for later.
What Comes Next
This template gives you clarity. You’ll see where you are, what’s in your way, and where to focus. But seeing the path isn’t the same as walking it. At some point, execution has to happen.
Some owners take what they learn here and handle it themselves. Others realize they need help on the operations side. They want someone who can put systems in place, build out their team, and keep everyone accountable. But they don’t need (or can’t afford) a full-time executive.
That’s the gap a Fractional COO fills. If you’ve finished this template and want support turning your plan into results, let’s have a conversation.
