If your small company is growing like no one’s business, you might be enjoying new and exciting opportunities to funding secure funding, and your team may be thriving under the additional pressure. That said, it’s a good idea to knuckle down and prepare your business for the additional challenges that rapid growth presents.
Shutterstock Licensed Photo – By fizkes
To help you get ready for the rush, here are some of the most common humps your business might encounter, and some insights to help you get over them.
Higher Stakes
One of the most thrilling and yet intimidating changes that may occur once your business starts to grow is that all of a sudden, you have a large customer base depending on your service or product. Complacency is the worst enemy of growing SMEs. Whereas before you may have ended up with a few angry customers if you experience a shortage or a technical issue, now that unforeseen disaster could cost you a lot more in terms of trust in your brand, and of course your bottom line.
When an unexpected issue could take a severe toll on your business, it’s crucial to have well-respected partners that you can call on to respond to your problem immediately with a ready solution. For example, a Rubber Track Dealer with a reliable supply and quick delivery could make the difference between a relatively small disruption in your operation and a major headache for your customer. Whether it’s managing relationships with suppliers or securing an alternate power source for electrical issues, it’s important to anticipate challenges rather than wait for disasters to occur.
Growing Pains
Your business is growing, quite literally. Getting more of your amazing product to market could require more space. Likewise, those new customer support agents you’re hastily recruiting to help you delight your customers are going to have to sit somewhere. If you choose to lease office space rather than buy, a ten-year lease will be required if the move is going to be cost-effective. Your first growth phase is hardly the time to make any huge real-estate commitments, as you don’t yet know what to expect from the next few months, let alone years. Remember, your sales could level out or even dip slightly before your next growth phase.
When your company starts taking off, you’d be smart to investigate real estate options that offer the flexibility you need to scale your business with the minimum commitment upfront. Whether that means shelling out for temporary commercial space or warehousing, or seating your new staff at hot-desks in a coworking space for the next few months, what matters is staying agile and scalable while your business is in flux.
Also Read
When your business starts to grow quickly, the experience can be simply exhilarating for you and your team. But it can also be fairly daunting, and that’s no surprise: your first growth phases can feel like make-or-break for your company. Obviously, you’ve been doing a lot right so far—there’s increasing demand for your product, right—but now the pressure’s on to take the business to the next level. These tips will help you avoid the dreaded SME growing pains.
