How To Scale Contract Management In Fast Scaling Companies: Key Steps

Table of Contents:

1. What should you expect when scaling a company?
2. How does contract management for scaleups help?
3. How to scale contract management in fast scaling companies
4. Scale your contract management with Contractbook

If you run a fast scaling company, you know how valuable it is to be able to spot a new growth opportunity. The more of them you take advantage of, the better. Well, one such opportunity lies in optimizing the way you handle your contract administration. So here’s how to scale contract management in fast scaling companies in five simple steps.

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What should you expect when scaling a company? 

However you choose to do it, scaling a business is always challenging. But it definitely helps when you know exactly what to expect and what challenges you’ll be facing. That’s why it’s important to learn about the difference between two terms that are sometimes used interchangeably - growth and scaling.

Growth vs scaling

According to Harvard Business School, there’s an important distinction between the processes of growth and scaling. 

When you’re growing a business, what you’re really trying to do is increase both revenue and resources simultaneously. On the other hand, to scale a business means to increase its revenue faster than the rate of cost increase.

Given that there’s such an important distinction between the two, the challenges they face aren’t the same either.

Challenges of scaling a business

When you’re trying to scale your business, some of the challenges you face are your usual business challenges. We’re talking finances, market expansion, etc. But there are some challenges involved in the process that will be more unique to scaling:

• New issues popping up all the time
• Difficulties with maintaining focus
• New regulatory issues arising
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When your business is in a rapid growth phase, you’re constantly coming across completely new and pressing issues. This is inevitable. However, it can make it difficult to keep track of the stuff that’s really important. Also, the process of scaling often involves a certain level of market expansion. And that’s how you find yourself having to deal with regulatory issues on top of everything else. 

Luckily, a lot of that becomes easier to deal with when you direct your focus toward contract management.

How does contract management for scaleups help?

Quality contract management doesn’t just speed up your contract administration. It has plenty of benefits for business in general. This includes everything from increasing productivity to shortening time-to-revenue. That’s why more and more companies are introducing some form of strategy when it comes to dealing with contracts. 

However, it could be said that this type of investment is even more important if you’re looking to scale your business. This is because contract management for scaleups also: 

• Makes you more agile
• Sharpens your focus
• Simplifies compliance work
  

How is all this achieved? Simple. Good contract management for scaleups involves creating a single source of truth, standardizing processes, and eliminating manual work. 

And even if you already have a system in place, you can still do more to ensure scaling your business ends in success. Here’s a five-step guide to help you get there. 

How to scale contract management in fast scaling companies

1. Identify key concerns

If you’re trying to scale your business, you’re looking to move fast. You’re also aiming to identify actions that will give you the highest return on investment. 

That said, maybe it’s not necessary for you to change absolutely everything about the way you handle contract work. Different companies have different issues and pain points. For example, maybe you already have a centralized system, but a lot of your processes are executed manually. 

That’s exactly why your first step should be to identify your most pressing concerns. 
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2. Keep your data in one place

If you’re learning how to scale contract management in fast scaling companies, there’s no avoiding talk of centralized repositories. It’s that important. 

After all, when your data is scattered across multiple systems, this creates a whole range of issues. First of all, you’re much slower at completing tasks. You also run the risk of wasting time and resources on duplicate work. Last but not least, you can’t analyze your own data properly.

But with a centralized repository, you get a single source of truth and a permanent solution to all those problems.  
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3. Introduce templates

One of the biggest enemies of contract efficiency is the lack of standardization. When you have employees writing contracts from scratch all the time, you risk those documents not being consistent enough. What’s more, you increase the chances of all sorts of errors happening. 

That’s exactly why strategic contract management involves using templates with standardized language. When they only need to populate a contract with client or partner data, your team members are faster. They’re also more consistent and less likely to make mistakes. 

4. Automate your processes

The entire point of scaling your business is to get more customers. This either directly or indirectly results in an increase in the number of contracts you need to handle. So if you’re wondering how to scale contract management in fast scaling companies, process automation is key.

Luckily, some of the most time-consuming processes within contract administration are the ones you can automate:

• Contract generation
• Contract approval
• Contract renewal
  

First and foremost, you have templates and questionnaires to help you automate generation. Then there’s the eSignature functionality that you can use to speed up approval. Lastly, you also have self-executing contracts if you want to automate renewal.
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5. Use data for further scaling

If you’re in the process of scaling your business, you should always be on the lookout for new growth opportunities. The easiest way to spot them is to collect and analyze all the relevant data. 

Scale your contract management with Contractbook

Now that you’ve learned how to scale contract management in fast scaling companies, you’re eager to implement this in your own business. What better way than making use of dedicated contract management software that’s powerful but easy to use? Contractbook software helps you organize, collaborate, and automate in ways that will only propel your business forward. So don’t hesitate to get in touch.