A suddenly fast-growing thing is fantastic, right? It absolutely is, however rapid growth comes with some challenges that must be met. If not, it could end up costing your business in the long run, or at least stalling or stopping the momentum.
When your business starts growing, it means that not only are you bringing in more revenue, but you are bringing in more work. You also need more infrastructure, data, and staffing to keep up. If you don’t manage this period properly, your growth will sputter out, and you may have some unhappy customers who did not get the products or services they paid for.
Here is how you can manage your growth so that you can adapt to the changes and keep that momentum going.
Have the Right Team in Place.
The first thing you need to do involves some foresight. Before you start to experience that growth, or for that matter struggles, you need to have a team in place that can handle it. Your employees must be adaptable to change and understanding when the nature of their jobs changes. If you have a team that has rigid, inflexible workers who will get overwhelmed by change, then they might not be the right fit for you. When change comes, including growth, you need teammates that will roll with it and help find solutions to move forward.
Outsource.
One of the best things you can do is to outsource some of your business processes. That way if you need to upscale you can do so easily. Most software as a service companies offer ways to increase how many contacts or data accounts you have. There’s no need to hire new staff or add hours to part-time workers to make up for an increased workload.
One of the other things you can outsource is your tasks that take up large portions of your day but aren’t necessarily essential to growth. For example, virtual assistant services can help with things like answering phone calls, filtering communications, keeping track of appointments and deadlines, and doing all of the little things that aren’t big by themselves but can add up through the day. That way, you can spend your time focusing on your core business instead.
Make Sure Your Customers Are Taken Care Of.
If you are experiencing growth, then it’s because you’ve had a quick increase in customers. While initial growth is great, to continue to grow or maintain it, you need to take care of your customers. Do whatever you can to continue to provide top-notch customer service no matter how busy you get. Your shipments need to be on time, and you should be answering all of your customer service communications quickly and effectively. Otherwise, you will get complaints, and they will show up on review aggregators and social media. This will stall your growth. Making money means having customers, so make sure they are happy no matter what.
Continue Being Careful With Your Budget.
It can be tempting when you experience rapid growth to try to invest as much as possible back into the business. This might work out for you, however, it’s a better idea to be conservative. Your expansion might be temporary, and you could find yourself stuck in financial hardship if you’ve made certain commitments that are no longer affordable.
As you grow, re-evaluate your budget and make necessary changes. The same goes for your projections. Be careful and diligent and stick with the plan. Besides, as business increases, there is more likely to be other unexpected costs, like equipment breaking down because it is overused, or more equipment needed to produce more product. You can invest back in the business, but be careful about it until you know that the growth is sustainable.
Focus On What’s Working.
Something has led to your newfound growth. The key is to figure out what that is, and how to continue to exploit it. Make sure that your marketing is tied to what seems to be attractive to the public and prospects. There is a reason that they are choosing you over the competition. It could be that your products are new and exciting. It might be your approach to customer service. Or, it could be your affordable prices. Whatever the reason is, it is your strength, and you need to make sure that your strengths are highlighted going forward.
Finding that your business is expanding is exciting, validating, and yes, profitable. However, it still comes with challenges that you need to address. When you are growing it is not a time to be complacent and sit back. Make sure that you aggressively take steps to not just maintain that growth, but to help you build even bigger going forward. These tips will help you do that so that you can find the success you’ve always been looking for.
