Do You Have That 1 In 100 Business That Can Scale And Land An Investor? Only 1% of businesses are investable, mainly because that's how many businesses can 10x their growth. There's an art to scaling, and it starts with you.

Only one in every 100 applications typically receive funding from venture capitalists. All 100 applicants believe their businesses are scalable and worthy of funding – and yet only 1% actually close investment deals.

"Most entrepreneurs radically overestimate their prospect of success and scalability," agrees Jason Goldberg, founder, and CEO of 10X-e and co-founder of Edge Growth.

"If you really want to scale your business, you need to know that you are absolutely obsessed with solving a problem that hasn't been solved before – so obsessed that you wake up at night with solutions buzzing around your head; so obsessed that your mind is always on the problem you're trying to solve. The reality is that hunger is an incredibly important success factor – hunger, the hours you're willing to put in and your level of intensity. How far are you willing to go and how many obstacles will you overcome?"

With this in mind, Jason and Vuyo Tofile, CEO of Entbanc Group, a fintech and digital support services firm share their top 3 secrets of scale.

1. You need to shift into a "scale' mindset

Start-up entrepreneurs are focused on the hustle: More work, more energy, more sales. These are all important factors in building a business, but scaling a company requires a different focus. "Scaling up is all about architecting an enterprise and strategically putting in place the building blocks that will move you from working primarily in the business to working on the business," says Jason.

"You need to minimise the work in the business so that you can work on the business and build a great company."

This is easier said than done though. Often the biggest stumbling block to a company's ability to scale is the founder. "The company founder or owner's inability to really focus on solving an initial problem for specific target market, understanding what their business really does and is offering, and finally how to truly replicate that service or offering can be major barriers to growth, and they all lie with the entrepreneur," says Vuyo.

The lesson is clear – you can hustle and make sales without clear structures and strategies in place, but that won't get you to scale.

"A lot of entrepreneurs love the innovative and creative mind space of start-ups as well," adds Jason, "which is great, but scaling is all about executing all those great ideas that you innovation and creativity helped you to come up with. If you can't do that, you'll never be able to scale."

"Having the ability to execute on growth is critical," agrees Vuyo. "Execution of the vision is far more important than having a strong vision. Vision without execution is meaningless."

2. Get the right team in place

According to Vuyo, if you want to scale your organisation, you need the right people on board – and this too is a crucial skill the founder needs to foster. "You have to be able to build an effective team around the business," he says. "You don't need to be able to do everything yourself – in fact, in order to scale you mustn't – but you do need to know who you need and where you need them."

For Jason, the lead indicator of your ability to scale is whether or not you can build a sales organisation. "Can you shift from selling to becoming the architect of an organisation that sells for you?" he asks.

Alongside this ability is shifting from hiring who you can afford to who you need. "Start-ups hire talented "jack of all trade' young high potentials (who are typically overworked and underpaid). This is an essential start-up tactic. Mature firms in scale-up mode need seasoned leaders who can take each part of your business to the next level.

"Having an awesome team is your most important ingredient of success. Every senior person needs to be pretty impressive in general, spectacular in their roles, and work well as a team."

3. Understand if your business is scalable

Not all businesses are scalable – and that's fine. Not all entrepreneurs want to scale their businesses either. However, if you do want to scale, it's important to know if your business falls into the scalable or un-scalable category.

"There are three basic rules of thumb," says Jason. "First, how big is the problem you're solving? Is this a problem that lots of people have and are willing to spend money on the solution?

"Second, what kind of problem is it? Is your solution a vitamin pill or a headache pill? How does your client feel if you don't exist? You're not scalable if they don't have a painful experience without you. In other words, do they have a headache if they haven't seen or heard from you today?

"Finally, how different is the value you bring to your client than all their other alternatives? You need to be ten times more valuable than your competitors. If you're not, there's too much competition, and you're unlikely to 10x the business."

Vuyo agrees. "Scale is all about having a service or product that is of real, tangible value to your customer. All the resources and brand equity in the world won't help you scale if you aren't providing real value."