03-01-2026SMALL TO FAST

How to go from a small business to a fast-growing company

One entrepreneur shares what works for her—and what could work for you.

[Source Photo: Freepik]

Small-business owners are up against a lot. It can be difficult to come up with the funding required to take an idea and turn it into something profitable, especially in an economy that can often feel less stable than many of us might prefer.

But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad idea to start your own small business. In fact, the opposite is often true. If you have an idea and a plan you believe in, the future of your small business can be wide open.

Of course, there are a few considerations to keep in mind along the way, Chedva Ludmir tells Fast Company. Ludmir, who founded the consulting and coaching firm Consider Labs, regularly works with entrepreneurs, CEOs, and founders who want to scale their small business—and to do so thoughtfully and quickly.

Quick growth is possible—but why do you want it?

First and foremost, any small-business owner needs to ask themselves why they want to grow and at what rate. If the answer to the latter is as fast as possible, there are more questions to contemplate, Ludmir says. 

“While for a startup, scaling quickly means grabbing more market share faster than competitors, and they often have the investor funds to back it,” she explains, “for a small business, it might wreak havoc on the profit and loss, let alone their work-life balance.” 

The first step, according to Ludmir, is coming up with a plan for growth that’s thoughtful, which includes assessing your own “time leaks” during an average day. 

She suggests asking yourself, “What is repetitive? What can be delegated to another team member or automated? What is contributing to the core differentiation of the business or to important customer and partner relationships, and what is not?” 

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© Fast Company