Scaling Your Small Business Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

Scaling a business requires every business owner to make some tough decisions. Christine Burdick is uniquely familiar with those challenges. But she has been able to successfully grow her business, Christine Burdick Design, by scaling very intentionally.
A commercial interior designer based in Burlington, Vermont, Burdick never actually intended to start a business. She was laid off, along with plenty of other design and architecture professionals, in 2009. And as she interviewed with other companies, she realized that many of them still needed designers but simply didn’t have the resources to bring anyone on full time. So she decided to start her own business to provide that service.
Burdick recently spoke with Small Business Trends about her business experience and some of the challenges she faced scaling the business. Here are some of the tips other small businesses can glean from that discussion.
Burdick’s business started out as a solo operation and quickly grew into a two-person business. However, at one point she actually had five employees, which was great when the company was busy. But it also led to some struggles that might have been avoidable had she been more intentional with scaling.