Growing a business is no easy task, especially if you’re having a sudden period of growth that has been difficult to keep in check. Perhaps you’re getting lots more customers than you anticipated and you’re having to make them wait in line or queue up for your goods, or maybe your systems are being overloaded and orders are being lost or delayed because your web host can’t handle the demand.
While these are brilliant signs that your business is getting off to a great start, it’s also crunch time and your business could completely fail if you aren’t being careful in how you handle this period of growth. Let’s face it, as a budding entrepreneur this is the type of success that you crave, but you probably didn’t expect to encounter it so soon. It’s situations like this that will make or break someone’s career, and to help you prepare we’ve compiled a list of tips on how to cope with the accelerated growth of your business.
Remain Confident
The last thing you want to show to your staff and customers is that you don’t have a clue what you are doing and that you’re losing faith in yourself. Remain confident, take deep breaths when needed, and do your research. Cancel those holidays, cancel your plans, and focus on this important period of your business’s life. You have to be able to cope with all the changes that are coming your way because this period of growth won’t be the last. You’ll have to continue growing your skillset and management skills alongside your business, and the best way to keep your head in the game is to screw it on tight and focus.
Get New Employees
A growing business can’t be managed by a small group of people. You need new people to handle more tasks and you need new departments to take care of jobs that you previously didn’t think about. For instance, take things like accounting and marketing into consideration. You won’t be able to do much with a spreadsheet for bookkeeping and having someone on your team draw up a few pictures and design an amateurish logo for your business isn’t going to work anymore. Check out this new hire checklist and start posting recruitment messages so you can add more staff to your payroll.
Embrace Change
People hate change. Your small business of tight-knit employees having fun every day is going to change and you’re going to have to bring on more people, more rules and get strict. You need to cope with the change in your company because if you don’t, you’re going to severely dampen your chances of growing into a major success due to your sudden popularity. If you need to diversify your products then do so, if you need to expand then pick a location, if you need to fire a slacking employee to make space then swallow that pill and get it done with. If you need to delve into research and skills you previously didn’t need, then embrace that change and accept that you’re growing as an entrepreneur.