Business Article - Managing Growth
Most businesses consider rapid growth to be one of the best things that can happen to them. Companies which grow quickly present a more positive face to customers and tend to have higher morale among their employees. At the same time, growth presents a number of new challenges that must be dealt with if growth is to be sustained. By keeping the following tips for managing growth in mind, you can ensure that your company rises to new heights while experiencing the least amount of growing pains.
First of all, a growing business typically requires a growing staff. To be able to consistently hire the right people at a speed fast enough to keep up with your demand, you have to be serious about the integrity of your hiring process. Job descriptions have to be clearly defined to prevent any kind of redundancy and make sure that everyone knows what they are supposed to do without stepping on each other's toes. Advertisements must be made to get people interested (or you can always hire head-hunters to take care of searching for people who meet your qualifications and are interested in your positions). Someone has to be in charge of interviewing the potential applicants, following up by checking their references and finally making recommendations on who to hire. The process has to be well enough designed that it can be carried out quickly - without allowing people through who don't meet your standards of quality. Taking care of growing the staff can take a lot of time if you don't have a human resources manager yet. Advertising can also be expensive; however with a wider and wider variety of sites online where companies can post job descriptions for free or for low costs, it is getting easier to find potential employees at a low budget.
Not only must new people be added to the team, those who are already working for you have to learn how to perform their duties on a new scale, or how to act in new capacities. If employees or members of the management can't deal with the increased workload, you have to find some way to help them, either by splitting their new responsibilities among multiple people, moving them to a position within the company that they are more suited to, or replacing them if there is no other option. If you intend to continue growing your company effectively, the people who work for you need to have enough flexibility to handle increasing workloads and to adapt to new tasks on a continuing basis. Not all employees or managers are likely to embrace the changes that your company is going through, but they have to be able to put the team ahead of themselves for the sake of the greater good. Make sure that everyone working at your company is able to share in the vision of growth. You can reassure your original employees that they are valued by posting new job opportunities within the company before you start advertising outside the company; that way people do not envy newcomers for getting jobs that they wish they had gotten a shot at. You can also have the people who are going to interact with the new hires involved in the interview and selection process to make them more comfortable with the people they end up working with. Always be supportive of your staff and demonstrate that you care about their job satisfaction by taking care to resolve disputes over job function amicably and praising them when they are able to rise to the new challenges that your company faces as it grows.
Having the right staff is of critical importance, but it is far from the only issue faced by companies which are undergoing rapid growth. Cash flow is another of the limiting factors on growth - a growing company needs to exhibit strong financial planning and make sure to keep its profit margins as large as possible. There can be setbacks during periods of rapid growth, and if a company's business is dependent on some form of inventory and supply purchases are regularly necessary, a hiccup in the company's finances can make it difficult to do business at all. Keep an emergency reserve in case of a sudden pause, and remember that in the future when you may be showing your business's history to investors or other potential partners, they will be interested in seeing how you maintained steady revenue streams at every stage in your company's development. Even if you are in a hurry to grow the company, it is important to minimize risk whenever possible and keep the basic business processes stable. Your expenses are sure to rise at a rapid pace, what with all of the new hiring, starting new locations, adding to your inventory requirements, and increasing your administration fees for handling the paperwork and accounting of a larger and larger organization. By showing strong financial planning skills as you grow, you can make sure that there are no unexpected interruptions in your growth, or crisis situations that can stall out your company's development or turn your ascent into a crash. Look for as many ways as possible to streamline the operation of your company as you grow. Don't just add without thinking - if there is any possible way to save money by redefining your employees’ responsibilities in a more efficient manner or making some simple changes to your internal processes, go with what is best for the company. Another note having to do with finances: anticipate when your company is going to move into a new tax bracket; your taxes can rise even faster than your sales if you change brackets at the wrong time. If your company is right on the edge of a new, significantly higher tax bracket, maybe you should hold back on growth and stay in a planning phase until the new financial year begins. Don't be in a hurry to grow too quickly if it comes at the expense of your company's bottom line and financial security.
Finally, use your forecast of projected growth to try and determine what kind of business facilities you will need over the next couple years. You can save substantial amounts of money by signing a lease for several years in advance, but you need to make sure that it has enough space to suit your needs. Often, by the end of a leasing period the facilities that a business inhabits will be either too large or too small. Try to rent space in an area where it will be easy to rent additional facilities on a short term basis if necessary before changing into a larger main building. Look for a deal with your landlord that gives you a good compromise between the amount of space, the time frame that you will be renting under, and the cost. When in doubt, go for extra space, but always try to come up with an arrangement that gives you a good degree of flexibility. An area that costs a little more, but allows you the option to rent nearby properties over the short-term if needed may be better than an area which is inexpensive, but which offers little potential for further development if the number of people at your company grows even faster than you expected. By keeping your options open, you can see to it that your staff's morale stays high by giving them enough space to move around in and work comfortably. Also be sure to carefully consider employees' input when you are planning a move, as moving to a new location can be difficult for some people depending on where they live and you can expect to lose some of your workforce when you change to a new location. Be ready to adapt!
These are just a few of the many issues that face small companies as they grow to become medium sized or large. The faster that a company grows, the sooner it will have to deal with these challenges. Remember that speed of growth is not always a good thing - keeping the company stable in the long run and preventing the stresses of rapid development from causing break downs in the company's finances or in employee morale is very important. Either of these problems will cause a slowing of your company's growth, so your ability to handle these new challenges is what will put limits on the speed at which your business expands. Make sure that you have everything that you need for growth: the right people, the right infrastructure, the right facilities and enough money, to keep the development of your company moving at a smooth pace without sacrificing the quality of your service to the customer or your ability to respond to the needs of the market. If you keep all of these things in mind you should be able to keep your company on a steady course even as it grows larger than ever before.