Joy Stevens is the Founder and President of Alegria Collaborative, a premium addiction and recovery service based in Los Angeles.
Chances are, you started a business for the same reasons my business partner Dia and I did: You’re passionate about the value your work provides and knew your unique approach and point of view could eclipse the options that currently exist in your industry.
We started our company to provide the level of support we believe people deserve from behavioral health client care. As it turned out, the integrity-led approach that guides everything we do is an ethos clients and their families were looking for—which meant it was soon time to scale.
Sound familiar? Irrespective of industry, successfully scaling can become a chimera—especially if the temptation (or pressure) to rush creeps in. Here are a few notes on how to scale up without losing your way:
Know your why.
Starting or scaling your business because you want to make a lot of money isn’t a why—it’s a personal goal. Starting or scaling your business because you’ve identified how to solve a problem, improve a situation or uplevel the industry standard? Now, that’s a why.
Between Dia’s experience working in treatment counseling and my experience as a coach, we knew our level of client care—our why—was unique. Our experiences in this industry—every burnout, every hoop we jumped through and every success—prepared us to provide superior care and support to clients.
Learn to say no.
When a client’s situation isn’t right for us, we say no. It doesn’t matter if someone is offering an astronomical sum—we say no. Our work has integrity; it doesn’t have a price. The quality we provide is the result of consistent effort and energy. For us, this is what creates a sustainable, long-term business.
Choosing integrity isn’t the easiest route. You’ll have to have hard conversations, and you won’t always win “most popular,” but the quality of work you produce will be worth it. And while selectivity may cost you client numbers, it often earns you credibility—and that’s much more valuable. Regardless of your industry, if you’re saying yes to everything, you’re likely not doing anything well.
Prioritize organic growth.
When we started out, we never said, “By year three, we want to make this much money.” We let our business grow organically by word of mouth, focusing on quality over volume and making sure every client is the right fit for our brand. Referrals and recommendations have been our most important lever for growth.
We also never said, “We want to be in five major cities by year X.” Instead, we noted where interest bubbled up organically—in Northern California, Seattle and New York—and when we ended up with trusted case managers in those areas, we knew the stars had aligned and it was the right time to expand.
Take your time.
When we launched, a colleague of ours offered us an invaluable piece of advice: Take your time. His own company had scaled too fast—part of the company blew up, and they were left to put the pieces back together.
Even with a powerhouse team, Dia and I stay connected to all parts of the business. We chose to grow our team slowly. We still manage the intake calls, talk to clients and their families and directly connect them to treatment facilities. We’re comfortable with slow growth because our commitment to our brand values informs the pace and ensures the work won’t get watered down.
Meet your market where they are.
Contrary to what the paid marketing agency rep in your LinkedIn inbox might be telling you, the sales strategies that work in many industries may not apply in your field. As you scale, your most effective marketing strategy might be enlisting a PR firm to support long-term growth or speaking to your industry peers at conferences.
In behavioral healthcare, marketing isn’t about inspiring an impulse buy. It’s about letting our colleagues know we are available and their patients/families have options. This approach supports recognition in our industry while still maintaining a level of sophistication and quality that speaks to our clientele.
Collaborate and connect.
As Dia says, it’s all about relationships. Both Dia and I had longstanding careers in behavioral health, so when we got together to launch our company, we had so many connections excited to refer clients to us. Having a base of people who trust you and support your business allows you to seek out people you want to work with and makes it easier to say no to opportunities that aren’t a fit.
I recommend starting by hosting dinners and lunches with trusted colleagues. This allows us to communicate our vision and brand with the people we know and trust so they can share with their own connections. That, coupled with our collective energy and passion for the work, has driven our meaningful growth and contribution to the field.
Wherever you’re at in your entrepreneurial journey, don’t be afraid of slow growth, and remember you only have one name. Maintain your integrity in your business and stay true to who you are. It will show confidence in your brand and promote confidence in the clients who seek you out.
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