Most businesses start with a founder’s drive to escape something: a bad boss, a corporate rut, or simply the status quo. But what happens when that initial spark of rebellion meets success? According to serial entrepreneur Farooq Cheema, this is where the real challenge begins. With multiple businesses under his belt and an engineering background that includes five patents, Farooq has learned firsthand what it takes to transform scrappy startups into sustainable operations. His insights come not from business school theories but from the trenches of building, failing, and growing again.
The Essential Mindset Shifts for Scaling
For Farooq, the jump from scrappy founder to scaling CEO demands two fundamental changes. “The biggest change when you’re scaling up is, number one, learning how to delegate,” he explains. “How to find the right people in your team and enable them to be good at what they do. If you’re doing a good job, you’re hiring people who are actually better than you, more experienced than you.” This represents a profound shift from the startup mentality. “In the startup phase, you got to know everything. You’re the one who knows everything. In the scaling phase, you’re not the one who knows everything,” Farooq notes.
The second critical shift involves financial management. “Learning cash flow or finance is huge,” Farooq says. “On the startup side, you kind of know what the numbers are. You can predict which customer is going to write a check, when that check will come in. But as you scale, the numbers are much larger. There are different flavors of money. You need to understand the difference between revenue earned and cash in your bank account.”
Building Systems While Preserving Culture
The transition also requires creating formal processes – often a struggle for entrepreneurs who started their ventures to escape rigid structures. “Building a system and forcing yourself to follow that system is hard for entrepreneurs,” Farooq explains. “Most of us became entrepreneurs because we wanted to break the system. We were done with somebody else telling us what to do. Now you’ve built your own machine, and you’ve got to follow your own machine’s rules.”
Maintaining the scrappy startup culture while implementing necessary structure presents another challenge. Farooq’s approach involves modeling careful spending habits. “We’re not too embarrassed to ask, ‘Is that the cheapest flight you’re getting on?’ It’s about respecting that dollar,” he says. “We had to teach our team that we can invest more in equipment upgrades if there are more profits to invest with.”
The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Energy
Farooq observes a fascinating shift in what drives founders during different business phases. “The startup happened because you had negative energy. You didn’t want to have a boss, or you were laid off. You were running away from something,” he reflects. “But scaling is no longer because you have anything to prove – you’ve already reached the purpose of why you started your business. Now you’re running toward something because you have a vision of how big this thing can be.” This forward-looking energy fuels the difficult work of learning new skills and building robust teams. “At the end of the day, the only thing that keeps you wanting to learn is how big your vision is and how serious you are about it,” Farooq says.
After years of starting and scaling businesses, Farooq now acquires small companies with growth potential. “We bet on the people in the business,” he explains. “It’s very gratifying when you see the team grow.” His advice for entrepreneurs contemplating the scaling journey? “Small business owners don’t want to really grow big because they think they can’t,” Farooq reflects. “I would definitely encourage those looking to go big that it’s not easy, but it’s worth the hassle. You started the business as a startup to control your future, but it’s a totally different feeling when you’re building your future with others too.”
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