Winners win..
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Your growing business needs all the help it can get and as a business owner I can pretty much bet that you’re always thinking about how you can grow your business, too. But where do you start? In today’s business there are hundreds of complex issues to deal with across all aspects of your business – such as sales, software, business finance, premises and people management. That’s without the client and candidates and the recession. With legislations changing regularly, and many other issues that can affect you becoming even more complicated by the week, it’s important to know that you’re always doing the right thing – for your business, and for your staff. One of the best ways to make sure you do the right thing and to ensure your business stays on track for growth, is to seek expert business support, advice and guidance. In fact, the future growth of your business could depend on it.
Is it the right time for your business to grow?
You need to ask yourself “how is my business currently performing?” Am I 100% sure that now is the right time to grow? A useful way to measure this is to use benchmarking to compare the performance of your business with similar organisations.
Are you planning for best practice?
Best practice means keeping up to date with developments and making sure you do everything possible to improve your performance in line with market leaders. If your business isn’t using best practice techniques, then growth will be more difficult to achieve..
What are your real options for growth?
It’s essential to think about the specific areas in which your business could grow. Do a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) if you haven’t already done so. Do you deliver some aspects of your service better than others? This is an ideal opportunity to ask your clients and candidates for their feedback. Growing a business successful is about asking yourself questions like these – and capitalising on the things you already do well.
Do you have a strategy for growth?
Your business growth needs careful planning and it starts with exactly how you plan to grow your business. What you’re your objectives for the business growth? Is it to increase your market share? Diversify or consolidate your services? Look for partnerships or joint ventures? Merge with another company? Or even acquire one?
How will you finance your growth?
What are the options available for your business? Do you know how much money you will need? Do you know when your business will need it? Do you know how to get that money in the first place?
How will you market a larger business?
If you are looking to have a larger target audience and perhaps offer new services, you’ll need to think about how to market them. What services do you offer and what is considered a value add in this market segment.
How will you deal with more customers?
Are you satisfied with the way you deal with your customers right now? Are your customers satisfied with the way you deal with them? Will your current customer relationship marketing techniques cope with an increased customer base?
Can your infrastructure cope?
Will you telephone and IT system currently running at capacity, can it handle heavier use? Planning growth for your business also means increasing your back office support functionality and is essential in keeping your business ticking.
Will you need larger premises?
Finding bigger premises is a huge task. You need to think about location, cost, benefits to staff, and the impact that moving will have on your footfall (if this is something that you rely on). The good thing that has come from the recession is that commercial leases have become cheaper and some businesses have experienced the ability to gain free rental periods.
Do you plan to recruit more people?
As we all know recruiting the right people is one of the toughest tasks that business owners face and can be the make of break of the business. Analyse and document what skills your business currently lacks and focus recruitment on these weak areas to not only compliment the existing structure but to cover the weakest areas. It is no good having fantastic sales teams, if quality servicers do not back this up.
How will you make sure your current staff are ready for growth?
Growing a business affects the people who work there, too, and you’ll also need to make sure your staff are fully prepared for dealing with growth, through your own training schemes, appraisal systems, and support plans. A sound internal development programme is extremely important and sets out clearly to all employees your commitment to their development..
How can business support help me grow my business?
Whatever your sector, and whatever your plans for growth, it’s likely that finding someone to help, advise and support you will make the whole process much smoother. It also means that growth will happen properly, that you’ll have covered every eventuality, and that your new, bigger business has the very best chance of succeeding.
There are 3 key areas of business growth where good business advice can really make a difference…
- Planning your growth – even before you begin to grow your business, it’s important to draw up a plan that outlines how you intend to grow, how you will manage it, how you will finance it, and how you will sustain that growth. An expert business adviser can help you will all of these things, which improves the chances of your business growing successfully before you even start.
- Employing more people – expert business advice is essential in helping you deal with Human Resources issues, equal opportunities, health and safety, discrimination, and salary and pay legislation on a bigger scale. And should the unexpected happen, it can also help you prepare for redundancies, accidents, and disciplinary problems.
- Finding more customers (and keeping them) – it makes sense that bigger businesses sell more products and more services to more customers. But one of the hardest things when growing a business is finding – and keeping – those extra customers. A good business support service can help you create a strategy for finding those additional customers and sales leads, and make sure your advertising, marketing, and customer relationship activity really is up to the job.
Are you ready?
Growing your business is exciting, make no mistake. But it’s important to be ready for every eventuality – before you grow, while you’re growing, and after you’ve grown. These quick questions have been designed to help you decide whether your business really is equipped to grow.
If you answer ‘no’ or ‘not sure’ to any of these questions, there’s a good chance that reliable, expert advice could make your business growth happen much quicker, much more smoothly, and much more effectively. Before you grow
- Do you know exactly how your business could expand?
- Do you have enough staff to help and support your growth?
- Do you know what training your staff will need to help them cope with the growth?
- Do you know when the best time to grow your business is?
- Are your premises big/well-equipped enough for growth?
- Can your business software cope with more customers and more orders?
- Do you know how you will finance your growth, and how much you will need?
- While you’re growing
- Are you confident that you can find and recruit the right people?
- Will you offer a competitive package to new staff?
- Are you aware of any new employment legislation that might affect you?
- Do you know the correct health and safety procedures for new premises?
- Do you know how to check you will get best value from new suppliers?
- Do you have a solid marketing and advertising strategy for your new products or services?
- Have you planned extensively for when things might go wrong?
- Once you’ve grown
- Do you have a clear strategy for keeping new customers and building loyalty?
- Will your business software continue to be effective with the extra pressures placed on it?
- Will your staff be happy in their new roles?
- Will your business perform better after the growth?
- Will your infrastructure and other support systems (such as telephones, etc) cope with this increased use?
- Has your growth given your business an edge over your competitors?
- Will you grow your business again?
- Want to find out more?
