Starting a business is difficult enough, even for the most adept of entrepreneurs; the statistic drilled into every new business leader’s head is, of course, that around 20% of new small businesses fail before the end of their first year in operation. But growing a business is something else entirely.
Growing a business requires an entirely different approach and skillset to starting one up. This is a time for consolidation, expansion, bedding in and reaching out. It isn’t enough to rest on the laurels of early success; indeed, failure to properly engage with the reality of your business’ future is tantamount to securing your failure. So, how do you grow your business the right way?
The initial success of your business is predicated upon demand for your offering – but this demand is not necessarily evergreen. With this in mind, your first job is to strengthen that which made you successful, and ensure it will continue to cover your overheads as you set your eyes on building bigger.
A good start would be to engage your customers in service of getting feedback. Customer surveys or questionnaires – with rewards attached – can be invaluable for learning where your company is excelling, and where it could be doing better. Quality control and reliability are key to customer satisfaction, without which your business’ foundations are weak.
Growth requires investment; or, less euphemistically, growing businesses effectively gobble money. Between growing employee cohorts, increased spend on marketing and the need to invest in a growing R&D department, you’ll be looking for investment and capital everywhere you can. Before you promise anything, you’ll need to know your finances inside out.
Start with a review of your cash flow, profit margins, and existing overheads. Cash flow is particularly important for seeking outside investment, being the key metric by which immediate business health is calculated. Next, you should seek out some individualised legal advice from an industry expert, to get to grips with your current standing and the possibilities you may have with respect to grants, loans or even merging with other enterprises.
As for how to spend the money you unlock, however it is unlocked, your key priorities should be staff and systems respectively. While you might have found early success with a skeleton crew, this is an unsustainable way to run a growing business; valuing your team doesn’t mean trusting them to work hard enough for two, but rather giving them the space to do their work to the best of their ability. Don’t be afraid to slightly overstaff teams, as the pace of your growth could surprise you – and the extra hands will quickly become indispensable.
Of course, the real source of your sustainable growth is your customer base – which means everything you do should point towards a growing audience. Try to target new geographical regions with your product, with a view to engaging niche groups or complementary markets. Targeted marketing, social media ads, SEO, and email campaigns are all strings to your bow, and should be shrewdly deployed accordingly.
Finally, it’s important to know that a growing business doesn’t need to be all-go. Don’t be afraid to step back and adjust your strategy if something isn’t working – and don’t forget to celebrate the small wins either.
