Many business owners just starting out believe their company with grow naturally or organically. The trouble is, few startups are set up to cope with the changes required for this type of evolution. As the business grows, your role will change, and the model you started out with will also need to evolve. You might call it nurturing, or you might call it restructuring! It can require a lot of change so your business might become quite unrecognisable in a short space of time. Here are 5 of the checks you should make before growing your company:
Money
Do you have the budget available to build up a marketing strategy that delivers the extra customers you’re looking for right now? As well as developing campaigns and paying for advertisements, you need to be able to handle the cuts in profits from discount promotions. Of course, more orders means more stock bought, more staff to handle the orders and more packaging. Don’t push for rapid growth if you can’t afford to fulfil the orders that come in.
Stock
If you are expecting more orders to come in, you will need to alter the agreements with your manufacturer or supplier to deliver more stock. Of course, you’ll also need somewhere to store all this extra stock until it can be sold and shipped. Warehousing solutions from companies like Atlantic Rack might offer a solution here. You need to be able to pack more in the same space. Or you might need to find an additional premises.
People
Engaging extra workers quickly isn’t easy. You might be limited to contract freelancers or temp workers through an agency. Both these options help to avoid lengthy hiring and HR processes. There are no pensions or additional taxes and insurances required. However, as a growing company, you need permanent workers you can rely on to grow into their role and stay loyal to you as an employer. This does take time, investment, and bigger HR bills!
Your Time
If you don’t have enough time to dedicate to ramping up your business, it will fail. You must free up your personal resources and schedule to nurture the company as it starts to take on more orders. This is a crucial stage for your business. You want to start building the brand, developing your team and culture, and building up your customer service resource. Do you have the time to get cracking with this?
IT
If your ordering system can’t handle a higher volume, your business might fail. Perform regular checks and speak to your IT service provider to confirm that the systems are ready. You might need to upgrade your apps, add a couple of automated emails into the sales funnel and ensure security online is tight. Check your on-hold messages and email footers. Is everything in place? Are you ready to give your business growth a boost?