On this season of the podcast, we’ve been discussing everything you need to know in order to transition from self-employment to business ownership. In today’s episode, we’re talking about business scalability and sustainability, and how they both apply to the growth of a business.

For the context of this episode, sustainability refers to the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time. In other words, we’re digging into the sustainability of you as the business owner. In today’s business environment, there is an astonishing amount of business models that aren’t sustainable in the long term. When you set out to own your own business and craft a business model that fits your business, your services, and your mission, it’s important to consider and factor in sustainability. 

Scalability refers to a business’s capacity to grow to meet increased demand. However, there is an important difference between growing a business and scaling a business. Business growth essentially means more of everything. Whereas business scalability is the potential to increase profits while overhead costs stay the same or decrease. 

The two primary aspects of building a sustainable and scalable business model are time and money.

• Time - Time is something that we can’t possibly create more of; it’s a forever depleting resource. But figuring out how to multiply time is how we can achieve freedom. For this reason, time management will be your greatest asset. 
• Money - For your business to be both sustainable and scalable, you will need to generate revenue and have a profit margin. Once a profit margin is achieved, money will need to be reinvested in the business. 

The evidence suggests that longevity in business ownership and career development allow for athletic trainers to continue impacting the patient populations they serve, and when we do that, we increase access to affordable healthcare services for the general public.