What Got You to $1M Won’t Get You to $10M
Last month, I sat across from a business owner Emma, who had built an impressive consulting business from scratch. She’d just crossed over $1 million in annual revenue, a milestone she’d dreamed of for years. We were catching up over coffee when she said something I hear often:
"It feels like everything that used to work is now holding us back."
Emma had built her business through sheer grit and determination, personally overseeing operations, managing forecasts in a spreadsheet, taking every major client meeting, and approving every invoice. But now, the cracks were starting to show. Her team was overwhelmed, margins were shrinking, and growth had plateaued.
Emma’s experience isn’t unique. In fact, it’s common. Hitting the $1 million revenue mark is a huge achievement, but the strategy that got you there won’t carry you to $10 million. Scaling a business means letting go of what once worked and shifting from centering on the founder to building a well-oiled machine that can grow without breaking.
So what changes?
1. The Business Model Needs to Evolve
At the $1M mark, many businesses are still figuring out their ideal customer, refining their offering, and relying heavily on founder relationships to close sales. But to scale, you need a repeatable, predictable model that doesn’t depend solely on you.
That often means:
Standardising services or simplifying your range
Clarifying your positioning in the market
Introducing processes and systems to consistently deliver your offering at scale
Emma, for instance, was offering customised services to every client, great for building loyalty, but hard to scale. She worked on defining clear service packages and tightening her onboarding process to deliver consistent outcomes without reinventing the wheel each time.
2. Your Team Structure Must Mature
One of the biggest challenges at this stage is people. At $1M, most teams are small, working closely, and often stretched thin. Roles are blurred, and a few key people do a bit of everything.
To get to $10M, you need:
Defined roles and responsibilities
Mid-level leaders who can manage and grow teams
Performance metrics that guide decision-making
Many founders also start out by hiring friends, family, or people from their close network, those who are loyal, flexible, and willing to grow with the business. While this can work in the early days, it’s not always the right fit long-term. As your business grows, the priority has to shift to hiring the best person for the job, someone who brings deep expertise and can lead a function without needing constant oversight.
This transition can feel uncomfortable, especially if it means restructuring or having tough conversations. But scaling a business means building a team that can meet your next stage of growth, not just the one that got you through the early hustle.
It can be hard for founders to step back from “doing” and start leading, especially if the business has always relied on their personal involvement. But leadership becomes less about being across every detail and more about building the right structure and empowering the right people.
3. You Need Real Financial Visibility
At the $1M mark, many businesses are still managing finances reactively, checking the bank balance, glancing at last month’s profit and loss, and only loosely considering what the next month might bring. But growth requires a forward-looking financial strategy.
That means:
Monthly financial reporting with insights, not just numbers
Cash flow forecasting, a rolling 12 months at minimum
Understanding your unit economics and margin drivers
Budgeting by department or project
When Emma and I dug into her financials, she had no clear view of which services were most profitable or which clients were actually costing her money. We were able to build a financial dashboard to track revenue by service line, margins by project, and forward cash flow. Within a few weeks, she had a completely new level of clarity and confidence in her decisions.
4. Systems and Automation Are Essential
Manual processes might have worked when you had a handful of clients, but they break quickly as volume increases. To scale, you need to invest in systems, both people and technology.
Key areas to systemise include:
Sales pipelines and CRM
Client onboarding and delivery workflows
Invoicing, reporting, and payroll
Internal communications and project tracking
Emma had four team members managing tasks in email and spreadsheets. She introduced a simple project management tool, automated some client onboarding steps, and set up recurring tasks. The result? Fewer mistakes, less stress, and a team that felt more in control.
5. The Founder Mindset Has to Shift
Perhaps the hardest part of scaling is the personal transition. Founders often need to stop being the doer and start being the CEO. That means:
Delegating decisions and trusting your team
Spending more time on strategy, culture, and growth
Letting go of perfectionism in favour of progress
Emma’s journey is still ongoing, but one thing she said recently stuck with me: “I didn’t realise how much I was holding the business back by trying to do everything.”
The Bottom Line
Crossing $1M in revenue is a sign that you’ve built something valuable. But getting to $10M requires a new way of thinking about your business model, your team, your finances, and your role as a founder.
At Olive Business Partners, we work with ambitious business owners like Emma to help them make that shift. We act as a strategic finance partner, giving you the insights and structure to scale with confidence, without burning out or losing sight of what made your business special in the first place.
If you’re feeling stuck between $1M and your next growth target, it’s time for a new playbook. What got you here won’t get you there, but we can help you map the way forward.