If you’re a dedicated entrepreneur, you know a business has to continually grow and evolve to survive. If you’re treading water, you’re losing momentum. You should always be looking ahead to the next growth opportunity. So as soon as your business is established and money is coming in, it’s time to consider how you can go about expanding and taking advantage of the moment. A lot of things can go wrong when you try to expand your operation, however.
Growing your business can take a lot of different forms, and not every possible big step is going to be right for your business and your market. You need to be cautious and deliberate in the actions you take to move your business in a new direction. Here are a few essential things for you to keep in mind as you seek to create healthy, sustainable growth.
Maintaining Cash Flow
Keeping track of your balance of payments and liquid assets at any point in time is key to keeping your business on top of things. You should keep track of all your assets and liabilities and the money flowing in and out of your business through various debts to ensure you don’t ever find yourself stuck without the cash to pay your debts or invest when a sudden opportunity appears. Trying to grow too fast can put too much of a strain on your cash flow and put your whole business at risk.
Building Up HR Capacity
If you’re expanding your operation, you’re going to need more people. However, before you start to bring new people on board, you need to consider what the most efficient way to handle hiring and staff management is for your business. Plan for growth by building your human resources capacity to keep things running smoothly.
The bigger your business gets, the more time and focus HR will take. You can’t afford to use all of your own time handling personnel issues, so you need to find someone else to take care of it. You can either expand your in-house HR team, or you can outsource it. “Bringing in an outside team to take care of your HR can cut down on costs and increase efficiency,” says Layne Davlin, founder and CEO of Net PEO. “Without investing your own time and focus, you can get a dedicated team to put in the work necessary to find and retain the talent you need.”
Scaling Up Efficiently
The most important thing to have on your mind as you plan your business growth is revenue and efficiency. Where does your revenue come from, and how can you invest most efficiently to build that revenue stream? If you’re not thinking deliberately about specific costs and benefits of your steps toward growth, you may very quickly find your business struggling to survive. Wherever you decide to put your capital, you need it to pay off, either in increased revenues or decreased costs. That’s how you keep efficiency first as you expand your business first.
