How can I make sure I am ready to move to the scaling phase, to avoid the perils of premature scaling?

You must have a pro­duct that does the job – i.e. you must have found product/market fit (see a sepa­ra­te article on product/market fit).

You must have a busi­ness model that works – i.e. you have unit eco­no­mics that pro­duce a posi­ti­ve result, so that for eve­ry cycle the engi­ne of your busi­ness turns you earn money, rat­her than lose it. Only then does it make sen­se to rev up the engi­ne. (see a sepa­ra­te article on Busi­ness Model)

Some acid test type of ques­tions to veri­fy you real­ly are rea­dy to focus on just sca­ling your business:

• You can make your busi­ness cashflow posi­ti­ve wit­hin the next 3 months
• At least 1 of the 5 big­gest cus­to­mer deals have been comple­ted success­ful­ly wit­hout any invol­ve­ment of any of the founders.
• You must have at least two non-foun­der team mem­bers gene­ra­ting more annual reve­nue than their all-in cost is to the company.
• You must have at least one non-foun­der team mem­ber who is brin­ging in more reve­nue than the cus­to­mer-facing founder.
• The Foun­der can switch her email off for 2 weeks and it causes no dent in revenue