Did you know that it takes a small business around 2-3 years to start making a profit?
There’s no doubt that business growth takes time and it can be a hard journey until you reach it! But the moment you start seeing your revenue move into the green and your business begins to expand makes all of the work more than worth it.
But, that doesn’t mean your efforts can stop! In fact, this is just the start. Now you need to look at how you can scale a business, managing your growth effectively to continue driving success.
Find out everything you need to know about business growth in this guide and propel your company into the future.
Managing Business Growth
Maintaining the integrity of your business while simultaneously growing is a delicate balancing act that requires a keen awareness of your essential business functions. You need to be aware of the challenges you may face, the USP of your company, the growth of your competitors – and that’s just naming a few! Taking stock of these elements before seeking substantial growth can help you handle growth when it comes.
If you’re managing a company, how you manage your business is likely to have a big impact on your business growth. If you aren’t taking steps to manage your growth ethically, you’re risking the integrity of your business, the reputation of your brand, and the success of your business. Thankfully, there are plenty of steps you can take to grow responsibly.
Setting Up the Foundations
It’s important to make sure you’ve done everything you can to prepare your business for growth. For example, you need to consider your goals as you move forward.
Are you hoping to bring in more revenue? Or is expansion simply an exciting way to diversify your offerings and be part of the next great business opportunity? Whatever you identify as your main goal will become the foundation for your business growth plan.
The changes you want to make will need plans in place to implement them. For example, you may be looking to increase your new clients, which would mean investing more in your marketing, or you may want to increase revenue from existing customers and so need to focus on innovation of add-ons to your products or services.
You also want to make sure you can keep up the growth you have right now without becoming stagnant. That means identifying the areas that are working and trying to keep those processes in place. It’s a fine line between driving growth and not sending your business back to the start!
Managing Your Workforce and Delegating Tasks
To successfully manage your business, you’ll need to have a good grasp of your workforce and how to manage them as you grow. By developing a solid workforce management strategy, you can streamline your work process and understand how your team members are performing. This shows you what’s working and what needs to be tweaked.
Knowing how to manage workloads is one of the most crucial tools for the organic growth of a business. By understanding how to delegate effectively, you can let the right people do the right job without adding to your workload and still get the best results. This is all starts with who you hire, so make sure your hiring process is flawless to secure the top talent and keep your company running like a well-oiled machine.
Begin to Plan Your Business Expansion
Business expansion is hard work. It will cost time and money, and you’ll have to make a lot of significant changes to ensure your company can handle the increases in demand. But, it’s worth it!
Before you try to expand, consider a few things. Do you have the resources you need to keep your business up to speed? Are you sure you can handle it? Do you have the necessary infrastructure and right kinds of employees to do all the tasks your expansion requires?
Take inventory of the roles your business needs to fill to grow successfully. Determine which team members will be added to meet your new requirements, whether that’s additional workers, or the hiring of contractors or consultants, or the addition of more equipment and/or storage. If there are any areas that raise red flags when you’re reviewing internal processes, focus on fixing these before moving forward.
Don’t Forget Your Brand Identity
Brand identity is an integral part of business growth, and oftentimes it’s an area where many entrepreneurs fail. But if you don’t put enough work into your branding then your company is going to be harmed in the long term.
Your brand identity is everything your audience associates with your company. That could be your logo, the colors you use, and even the way you deliver customer service! All of it adds up to create an impression of your brand which, if done well, will keep them loyal to you.
As you grow it’s vital you don’t compromise your brand identity. If you’ve thrived on small business customer service, ensure you hire more people to deal with customer queries to keep providing a personal, hands-on approach to your service. If you’ve drawn in customers with the fact that you’re a small, family-run business, consider how you can keep these values while you grow to avoid losing a segment of your audience.
Your brand identity is crucial to your success, so don’t forget it when managing your growing business!
Start Managing Growth and Drive Success
Business growth is a vital part of every company’s lifecycle. But, it has to be managed carefully if you want to keep driving your brand forward and not jeopardizing it in the process.
If you think you could use some help when growing your business, take a look at our services at New Work Revolution. Our expert team help brands increase their profits quickly, helping you become a top competitor in your industry.