Scalability Analysis

Can this business 2x without you working 2x? You're not sure. Scalability analysis is evaluating whether your business can actually scale or if there are hard limits. Many domain-expert businesses hit natural ceilings—revenue grows only when the founder's hours grow. The analysis names those limits and shows where you'd need to change the model (e.g. productization, delegation) to break them.

Same revenue, different scalability. A bookkeeper who does every return herself can grow to $15k/month; beyond that, she is the limit. Same bookkeeper with one trained associate running 60% of returns and a clear SOP can 2x revenue without 2x her hours—the system scales. Scalability analysis asks: if we 2x clients, do we 2x our hours or do we 2x capacity? If the former, you're not scalable yet. Look at bottleneck and constraint theory to find and fix the constraint.

Can you 2x revenue without 2x your time? If not, scalability analysis shows where the limits are.

How to do it

  1. Map throughput. How much work does the business complete per week? Who does it? If 80% is you, growth will require more of you. The analysis is: what would need to change for throughput to double without doubling your hours?

  2. Name the bottleneck. Usually delivery, operations, or sales. Constraint theory: find the one limiting factor. Fix it. Then find the next. Scalability analysis identifies the current constraint.

  3. Track the right numbers. KPIs: revenue per employee (or per hour of your time), margin by service type. These show whether the model is actually scaling or just getting busier.

Where to go next

Finding the constraint bottleneck, constraint theory
Adding capacity productization, delegation

Back to The Manual

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Scalability Analysis · The Manual · OQVA