A blue background with white diagonal lines and the text "The Business Journals" in bold white font.

Atlanta Business Chronicle Leadership Trust • A network of influential business leaders in your community

5 Secrets to Take Your Business to the Bigtime

Young girl dressed as an astronaut with a rocket backpack, standing outdoors with mountains in the background, raising one arm in victory.

The Business Journals Leadership Trust

By Barry Raber, Founder at Carefree RV Storage

Barry Raber, founder of Carefree RV Storage, is a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and an EO Portland's Entrepreneur of the Year.

Founder Barry Raber wearing a white shirt, indoors with warm lighting

As a visionary founder, have you pondered the potential of your business? Have you ever wondered if your business could go bigtime (become worth $20 million or more) — and if so, what it would take to get there? As an entrepreneur who has taken two companies from startup to bigtime and successful sales, I have some advice to share.

First, evaluate whether your business meets the three criteria for going big (I developed these through discussions with fellow entrepreneurs):

It provides exceptional value that customers cannot readily find elsewhere.
It’s positioned to scale by offering repeatable transactions with wide appeal.
You are exceedingly passionate about your idea.

If your business checks these three boxes and you’re up for the challenge, it’s time to explore what you’ll need on your trek to the bigtime.

A blueprint for the bigtime

I recently interviewed five bigtime-level entrepreneurs to try to figure out whether the bigtime group did something business owners “stuck” at other levels don’t (or can’t) do.

The answer is yes: They all took five specific actions that lower-revenue businesses did not.

1. Think bigger and plant a flag.

The bigtime entrepreneurs were confident enough to dream, and to ask, “Why not 5x, 10x — or even 100x?” To help them imagine that future, some used Cameron Herold’s book Vivid Vision, Jim Collins’ BHAG concept or Verne Harnish’s concept and book, Scaling Up.

2. Commit to a one-page plan (and only one).

Notably, 100% of the bigtime entrepreneurs I interviewed use a one-page strategic plan religiously, all the time — a key concept from Scaling Up. I’ve observed that some founders have such strong ideation tendencies that they won’t permit themselves to get “corralled,” or commit to a single path. If they do make a plan, they often abandon it six months later. Their company then tends to meander, never truly achieving what’s possible when everyone is on the same page, rowing toward a brass ring.

3. Hire the right staff to make it happen.

Once bigtime entrepreneurs developed their plan, they hired the right people in the right positions to make it happen. They also leveraged tools like Gino Wickman’s book Traction to ensure execution and forward planning, enabling inevitable growth while keeping stress at the lowest level possible. They all had capable leadership teams and trusted copilots for the journey, often involving top contributors in ownership with significant incentives to bring the vision to life.

The major advantage of this approach is that sharing the responsibility for building the enterprise reduces stress on the leader. But staffing up requires entrepreneurs to get comfortable with two things: First, sharing control of their company and investing more in it. Second, raising funds to pay for the staff-up, either by taking on investors or sacrificing some pay and profit to enable company growth. This is the gutsiest moment of the journey.

4. Develop crystal-clear branding.

All five bigtime founders are exceptionally clear about what their companies offer, how it is distinctive and how they communicate those distinctions. Most importantly, they are clear on what they won’t do, which is nearly everything except their very narrow product description. They only do what they feel they can be best at. These founders embody the value of answering key questions (as I’ve written about previously) to get your brand crystal clear.

5. Become fanatical about culture and customer.

Creating a unflappably positive, unique company culture and raving customers who promote your brand takes a great deal of heavy lifting. But it pays off a hundredfold, like a self-perpetuating flywheel.

There are two ways to measure this. One is customer reviews on Google and/or employee reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed. The other is a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey, asking how likely customers are to refer friends or family to your business, as rated from 1-10. In my experience, if you can achieve a 4.8 average on Google, a 4.5 on Glassdoor or Indeed and an NPS score of 75%–85%, your flywheel is spinning, and good things are happening: You’re on your way to the bigtime.

In an in-person Q&A I attended, Richard Branson said the difference between a good company and a great company is in the tiny details. Sweating the tiny details of employee and customer experience is the “secret sauce” that adds to the first four ingredients.

Final thoughts

All five bigtime entrepreneurs shared a final common step after they reached the bigtime: They sold. That may be in part because running the business became less fun and more mundane, and partly because the business had essentially outgrown their capabilities.

All five sold for life-changing valuations and never had to work again. But most chose to continue working because they love the challenge and had new ideas they wanted to breathe life into.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Barry Raber, is an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Member, CEO of Business Property Trust, a Portland, Oregon, company that owns and manages RV storage through Carefree Covered RV Storage and self-storage through Bargain Storage. He is also a thought leader who shares experiences for businesses at Real Simple Business.

FAQ: 5 Secrets to Take Your Business to the Bigtime

What does it take to grow a business to the bigtime?

According to entrepreneur Barry Raber, who interviewed five founders who successfully scaled their companies to $20 million or more in value, taking a business to the bigtime requires five specific actions: thinking bigger and planting a flag, committing to a one-page strategic plan, hiring the right people in the right roles, developing crystal-clear branding, and becoming fanatical about culture and the customer experience. These aren't personality traits — they're deliberate choices that lower-revenue businesses consistently skip.

What are the 5 secrets to scaling a business?

The five actions that bigtime entrepreneurs take — and that others don't — are:

Think bigger and plant a flag — Set a bold, long-range vision that asks "Why not 5x, 10x, or even 100x?"
Commit to a one-page strategic plan — And stick to it; 100% of bigtime entrepreneurs Raber interviewed used a one-page plan religiously.
Hire the right staff in the right seats — Build a capable leadership team and give top contributors meaningful ownership stakes and incentives.
Develop crystal-clear branding — Know exactly what you offer, how it's distinctive, and just as importantly, what you won't do.
Become fanatical about culture and customer — Create a self-perpetuating flywheel of raving customers and engaged employees.

How do bigtime entrepreneurs think differently about business growth?

Bigtime entrepreneurs are confident enough to dream at a scale most founders don't allow themselves. Rather than asking "How do I grow 20% this year?" they ask "Why not 5x, 10x — or even 100x?" Tools that help ground this kind of visionary thinking include Cameron Herold's Vivid Vision, Jim Collins' BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) concept, and Verne Harnish's Scaling Up. The key shift is giving yourself permission to plant a flag in the distant future and then build backward toward it.

What is a one-page strategic plan and why do all bigtime entrepreneurs use one?

A one-page strategic plan is a single-page document that captures your company's most important priorities, goals, and direction — and keeps the entire organization aligned and rowing toward the same outcome. Barry Raber found that 100% of the bigtime entrepreneurs he interviewed used a one-page plan consistently. The critical discipline isn't just creating the plan — it's committing to it. Founders who keep abandoning their plans six months in, or who refuse to "get corralled" by a single direction, tend to see their companies meander without ever reaching their potential. The one-page framework from Verne Harnish's Scaling Up is a widely used starting point.

Why is hiring the right people so critical to scaling a business?

Once you have a plan, you need the right people to execute it. Bigtime entrepreneurs build capable leadership teams and trust their staff with real responsibility — rather than trying to do everything themselves. This requires getting comfortable with two things: sharing control of your company, and investing more in it, either through outside funding or by temporarily reducing your own pay and profit to fund growth. Tools like Gino Wickman's Traction help ensure execution and keep forward planning on track. Raber calls this staffing-up moment "the gutsiest moment of the journey" — but it's also what separates businesses that plateau from those that break through.

How does sharing equity or ownership help scale a business?

Giving top contributors meaningful ownership stakes or significant performance incentives aligns their interests directly with the company's growth. When key team members share in the upside of building the enterprise, they bring more energy, creativity, and commitment to the work. It also distributes the weight of the journey — reducing stress on the founder and making the whole operation more resilient. The major trade-off is diluting your own ownership, but for founders committed to going bigtime, the math of a smaller slice of a much larger pie almost always wins.

What does crystal-clear branding look like for a bigtime business?

Bigtime founders are exceptionally clear on three things: what they offer, how it's distinctive from competitors, and what they won't do. That last part — knowing what you won't do — is especially important. Bigtime businesses tend to have very narrow product or service descriptions and only pursue what they believe they can be best at. This extreme focus is what allows them to deliver a consistently outstanding experience. Trying to be everything to everyone is the enemy of great branding. Raber has written a companion article specifically on how to get your brand crystal clear using five key questions.

How do you build a strong company culture that drives business growth?

Building a strong culture starts with defining it deliberately — knowing what you stand for, how you treat employees, and what kind of customer experience you're committed to delivering — and then reinforcing it every day through hiring, recognition, and performance management. Raber describes a great culture as a flywheel: it takes heavy lifting to get moving, but once it's spinning, it becomes self-perpetuating. Employees who love where they work deliver better customer experiences. Happy customers leave great reviews and refer others. Those referrals bring in more ideal customers, which funds more great hires — and the cycle accelerates.

What metrics show that your culture and customer flywheel is working?

Barry Raber offers two ways to measure it. The first is public review scores: aim for a 4.8 average on Google reviews and a 4.5 on Glassdoor or Indeed (employee reviews). The second is your Net Promoter Score (NPS) — a survey asking customers how likely they are to refer friends or family, rated 1–10. An NPS score of 75–85% is the benchmark Raber uses to confirm the flywheel is truly spinning. At those levels, organic growth through word-of-mouth and employee retention start to compound.

What role do small details play in scaling a business?

Enormous ones. In a Q&A Barry Raber attended, Richard Branson said the difference between a good company and a great company is in the tiny details. Sweating the small stuff — how a customer is greeted, how quickly a complaint is resolved, how clean the environment is, how clearly a team member explains a policy — is what separates company’s customers merely use from company’s customers rave about. The fifth secret (culture and customer fanaticism) is really about having the discipline and standards to get the little things consistently right, at scale.

What happens after founders take their business to the bigtime?

In Raber's research, all five bigtime entrepreneurs he interviewed eventually sold their businesses — for life-changing valuations that left them financially set for life. In many cases, the business had grown beyond the original founder's operational strengths, and the day-to-day had become more management than entrepreneurship. Most chose to keep working not out of necessity, but because they genuinely love the challenge of building and had new ideas they wanted to pursue. Going bigtime, it turns out, rarely ends with retirement — it often starts the next chapter.

Do I need outside investors to scale my business to the bigtime?

Not necessarily, but you do need capital to fund growth — particularly to hire the leadership team required to execute at scale. Some founders self-fund by temporarily reducing their own pay and profit and reinvesting it into the business. Others bring in outside investors in exchange for equity. There's no single right answer, but the question you need to answer honestly is: do I have the capital — from whatever source — to staff up to the level this growth requires? Avoiding that investment is one of the most common reasons capable businesses stall before reaching bigtime.