Welcome to our blog on top tips for when your business is ready to grow, firstly, congratulations! If you are seeking out this material then you most certainly deserve to take a moment and look at how far you’ve come. Setting up, maintaining and growing a business is not for the faint hearted. You’ve come this far and now the question is, is it time to grow? Here are some signs that now could be the right time for your business:
Customers, clients, your audience are consistently wanting more
This is all about having an honest conversation with yourself, are you consistently being asked to deliver more work, are you more in demand than you were this time last year? Let’s not forget, the pandemic will have some impact on this analysis. If you are having to turn work away because you simply cannot fit it in, then now could be the time for you to grow, if you want to.
When looking at your demand, have an eye on further down the road too, what will happen to your industry in the coming years, will it change, develop, grow or shrink. We realise this is difficult to predict but researching your industry will help shape the ‘growth’ question.
Finally, can you grow with having minimal effect on your current customers / clients? How can you maintain your USP (unique selling point) and business values whilst scaling up.
Your bank balance
An uncomfortable question for some but what is the health of your business bank balance? Alongside growth comes investment and we usually say at least three years of growth on revenue/turnover and profit.
Cashflow is key here, you need to ensure that there is enough money to keep the business running smoothly whilst you focus on growth and potentially investment. Investment can come in many different forms; new equipment, technology, staff and you may not see a return on these immediately.
Perfect processes
Growth means having a solid foundation of your current processes. This will allow your business to thrive whilst you grow. These processes also need to sustain growth, are they sturdy as they are? Can they handle the growth you would like to see? Finally, your processes need to be documented so that your team (part of your growth plan) can pick these up quickly.
It’s all in the timing
It’s best to expand before you hit full capacity which is a very hard balance to strike. Being a small business owner, you will have done everything from top to bottom from the start. There could be times that you are required to get involved in the nitty gritty again and that is all part of a growing business. This is the classic struggle of working in the business versus on the business
Make it accountable
Write down your goals for growth, your why and what you want to achieve. This then becomes part of your, plan, do and review process so you can measure your growth versus what you had planned
If you would like some input on whether your business is ready for growth we would love to talk to you.