Can You Handle Business Growth?
Business growth is the dream of every business owner, right? However, bigger is not always better.
More than one entrepreneurs collapsed on the way to success because they stumbled on an important obstacle, namely business growth. Not the lack of. On the contrary.
The presence of growth is sometimes what push a business to fail. Growth, indeed, is not a static item you can add to your office equipment, like you would buy a stapler or new pens. Buisness growth is both organic and multi-directional.
Your business doesn’t grow only in one place; it grows from a variety of point within its structure, which can lead to new tensions and pressure across the board. Additionally, growth also brings new challenges.
You can’t expect the strategy plan to be accurate when the business grows. The data collected as part of your analysis are evolved, and the identified frictions points are likely to have changed as well.
In short, how can you keep your dream business growth from turning into a nightmare?
You have no idea anymore how to fill up your taxes
Things used to be easy when you had one straightforward account with profits and losses. But with growth, a company tends to embrace more sophisticated transaction patterns.
Investments don’t only come in the form of receipts, but they are long-term commitments that can be deduced from your taxes.
Purchases have a depreciation rate, which you never needed in a simple business structure.
And finally, with more clients, you might need to create different invoicing terms, so that you have to rely on professional accountants to juggle between 30, 45 and 60-day payments.
Ultimately, the whole transactional landscape becomes more complicated with growth. If you’re still crunching your numbers, it’s time to leave it to an expert to ensure you don’t accidentally commit any tax faux pas.
The office can barely contain your team
Walking through the office becomes a parkour game when the room is too small for the team. On the one end, clutter will accumulate at a frantic pace – due to the obvious lack of space.
An office needs storage room for all essential information, material, and equipment. Otherwise, your office becomes the storage area, and your employees can struggle to stay productive.
Ultimately, small offices can suffer from productivity crisis, especially when employees don’t have sufficient private space to work. Nobody likes to work with someone constantly watching over their shoulders.
But this is precisely the work environment you create in an overcrowded space. Relocation is, by far, the most profitable solution. But you can also offer remote working options to some employees.
The team is outstretched
With growth comes more projects. While it is advisable to wait before hiring a new member of the staff, you need to ensure that your team isn’t already outstretched to keep up.
Indeed, the more there is to do, the more you’ll have to wait for tasks to be completed. While this isn’t a problem for projects that are not time-critical, it can be devastating for other activities.
Social media, for instance, doesn’t take delays lightly. When your customers get in touch online, they expect a response within the hour, regardless of your opening hours.
In other words, if your team is short for time, you might have to struggle with social media backlash.
You have way more competitors
Did you think that business growth meant you didn’t need to worry about competitors? Wrong. In reality, you gain new competitors when your business shares grow on the market.
Imagine a regional business that manages to achieve national clients. As a result, the business is not only facing regional competitors, but now also national players.
Additionally, growth in the audience groups doesn’t always reflect on your budget. For a small business, entering a broader market without the necessary marketing and operational budget is likely to cause competition issues in the long term.
Overworked employees
Last, but not least, the only way to grow is to take on more clients. Growth being often difficult to predict, very few companies make the most of their resources.
Too many build their success on long hours and hard work until they can afford to hire new employees.
As a result, it’s not uncommon in a growing business, to find overworked staff and high consumption of caffeinated drinks.
Unfortunately, there is a thin line between using your team to its maximum capacity and overworking your staff. Once the line is crossed, the business loses in quality and productivity. But similarly, without pushing your employees to their limits, you can’t create the momentum you need to grow your team.
There is a fine balance to maintain about growth. While it is the most beneficial thing that can happen to a business, if it isn’t handled effectively, it can also be the last thing that happens to your business.
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