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Growth is good, right? Every business wants to sell more, attract more clients, hire more people, and most importantly, start bringing in more cash. When your business starts to take off, it’s exhilarating – but it can also be scary if you’re not set up for it.
Whatever your business does, growth puts the pressure on. If you’re selling a physical product, you’ll have to produce and ship more; if you’re selling a service, you’ll need more staff or more efficient systems to handle all your clients; if you’re selling software, you’ll need to make sure it can cope with the workload. Internally, you’ll need systems in place to cope with workflow and make sure projects don’t slip through the cracks.
Here’s how to make sure you’re ready to grow.
Build a great team
It’s a cliché for a reason – people really are your most important resource. Building a team of talented, hard working people shouldn’t be a response to growth; it should be something you do right from the start. If you’re frantically hiring because you can’t cope, you’re less likely to find the right people for the job.
Some business owners take an ad hoc approach to hiring, picking people they know or recruiting informally from their business network. This can work well in some cases, but may not get you the best result. And working with friends can be a recipe for disaster if they end up being a bad fit.
Avoid getting stuck with the wrong people by creating a set recruiting process when you start your business. This might mean working with a specialist recruiter, creating a thorough list of interview questions, getting potential recruits to produce work as freelancers first, or a combination of all three.
Processes made perfect
Internal processes are not the most exciting part of running a business. It’s easy to focus on the product or the clients, and give less thought to the boring day-to-day business management tasks like managing timesheets, payroll, and accounting.
But these systems and processes are hugely important. If they don’t work properly, you could end up losing time, losing cash, or losing clients. This is particularly true at times of growth, when you may be taking on new staff.
Make sure essential processes are established and documented from the beginning, so new people know what’s expected and everyone is doing things in the same way.
Software solutions
As your business takes on more clients and staff, managing workflow can become an issue. Processes that may have worked when you were very small, become clumsy when you’re bigger. You need a tool that lets you track projects from quote to delivery, gives you an overall view of incoming projects and cash flow, and helps record staff hours so you can bill accurately.
This is where workflow and business management software, like Roll, come in. We’re far from the only workflow software out there, but we think we offer a pretty fantastic solution for small to medium businesses.
As a start-up ourselves, we know what businesses need to help manage the day-to-day, and stay on top of growth. Our software is designed to make it simple and straightforward, so you have more time to focus on building relationships and improving your service.
Need help coping with growth? Roll can help. Click here to try Roll for free.