Building a business into a stable, profitable enterprise takes an enormous amount of time, effort, investment, and resources. For that reason, it probably comes as no surprise that many business owners become very cautious about making major changes once they do achieve such stability and profitability. Unfortunately, those instincts can get in the way of their business’ continued growth and long-term success.
As a business owner, you must look to constantly innovate and keep up with the times in order to grow your business and ensure it remains competitive. That may mean letting go of tasks, procedures, and roles that no longer serve the interest of your business.
Investing in change
Keeping up with a changing industry and technological advances means you must keep track of developing trends, purchase new equipment and software, and regularly train your staff. It also means investing in the development of new ideas and sometimes taking the risks associated with implementing them.
To manage the risk of a setback directly, you’ll need cash flow management tools like invoice financing, and supply chain finance. These allow a business to distribute the financial impacts of a setback over a longer time period, giving them the freedom to act. Furthermore, you’ll need to ensure you can invest, streamlining operations as much as possible while your business continues to grow.
Stepping out of your comfort zone
As the needs of your business change, the way you operate will need to adapt if you’re going to maximise profit, growth, and overall effectiveness. Most often, this means letting go of familiar and safe aspects of your operation to make room for bold, strategic, and growth-focused decisions.
Changing clients
Early on, your business may rely on a select few particularly important clients to keep your head above water. When starting up, consider the long-term effect of offering special privileges and discounts to these first customers. You may find it hard to increase your prices down the track and this could well start to get in the way of your business’ success. As your business grows, it needs to switch gears, raise prices, optimise services, and sometimes shift to larger, more profitable clients that offer that potential for growth.
Capitalise on your employees’ strengths
The first person you hire as a manager may be an excellent team leader, working as your second-in-command. This doesn’t mean, however, that this person would also be effective in a high-level executive position once your business has grown. As your start-up becomes more established and larger hierarchies are implemented, current employees need to be placed in positions where they’ll be most effective while new talent needs to be brought in to meet the new demands of your business. This often means surrounding yourself with new faces, while keeping more familiar employees in the roles where they’re the most effective.
Don’t try to hold back progress
As a business matures and becomes more complex, the role of the leaders will change. As a business owner, you’ll need to be mindful of the difference between founding a new, small business and operating a large enterprise. Entrepreneurs don’t always make the best CEOs! As a business owner, you may need to invest in your own training, delegating some core activities to more experienced professionals, and be willing to listen and implement the advice of investors and your employees!
Growing a business isn’t just a matter of acquiring more clients and producing more product. Instead, it’s a transformative process that requires every aspect of your business to evolve. By embracing this, and by deliberately leading that change, you can turn your start-up into an industry-leading enterprise.
If you want to grow your business, increase profits, fill business downtime, or reduce cash expenses, Bartercard is here to help. To find out more, download our free eBook, How to use Bartercard to grow your business, or contact Bartercard today to learn more.
