We have been inspired by the sudden
appearance of bright canola fields out here in country NSW, and although we were
prepared to see the beautiful yellow hues emerging from the fog and grey skies,
it got us to thinking about businesses and sudden growth.
The big challenge for businesses is what is
called the ‘take-off’ phase. Many people work so hard to grow their businesses,
and when they finally take-off, a lot don’t have the plans in place to handle
the sudden growth. It’s a great problem to have, but can be a problem if not
properly dealt with.
Focus your
growth on specific target markets
Everywhere you look, you see opportunities,
however it is vitally important to focus on a specific target market rather
than chasing every opportunity that presents itself. Try to do one thing really,
really well as opposed to trying to do too many things.
Identify
areas that will need changes to cope with growth
In order to cope with growth, there may be
areas of your business that need changes, particularly with regard to
resourcing. Aspects of your business like accounting, marketing and social
media are common gripes of business owners. Diarise your day-to-day duties and
keep track of everything that takes up time better utilised on other aspects of
your business. Why not employ administrative support, or look to recruit
external help for your marketing?
Take the
time to re-visit your goals and objectives
Now that your business is growing, you should
be achieving your goals and objectives. Right? Have a think about why you went
into business and what gets you out of bed every morning. Now is the time to
re-analyse your goals and objectives to ensure you are achieving what you set
out to do. You may discover that you will have new goals based on opportunities
that have presented themselves.
