How do I manage or prepare for business growth is a question on the lips of most managers, especially when their business is booming (sales is reaching new all-time highs, profits is increasing, you are making a name for yourself among your competitors) and on track for a good year. However, properly managing this growth and harnessing its full potential is not easy.
If you’re not prepared for this business growth, you might quickly run into issues like maintaining customer experience, high and better service delivery, keeping up with supply and demand, etc. It gets complex when external factors like market changes come into play.
In order to prepare for business growth, there are some aspects of your business you need to re-organize.
Prepare For Business Growth Using These 5 Tips,
1. Having The Right Team
According to Kamil Toume, “the real competitive advantage in any business is one word only, which is people”. Having the right team is critical for the success and growth of your business. Your team can either make or mar your business.
A good way to manage your team is by giving them what they need, which is most times around job security, empowerment, clear-cut career path, good pay, clear objectives, etc.
The common thing successful businesses have are, people who are dedicated and committed to seeing the company’s success.
In order to prepare for business growth, engage and train the right people while also having good retention policies are essential.
2. Financials
Having a good grasp of your current expenses (working capital) is important. This helps you to know how much capital needs to be injected so as to prepare for business growth. This additional fund will be used to invest in processes, machinery, infrastructure, materials, and so on.
Planning ahead is key so that you can secure the funds before getting overwhelmed by your customers’ demands.
If you don’t know how to go about sourcing funds, you can read my article on the 6 ways to raise money for your business.
3. Tracking and Monitoring
Tracking and monitoring go beyond being up-to-date with your revenues and sales. It involves measuring how every aspect of your business operation is performing. You need to know what is working, and what is not working so that the necessary changes can be made.
What about the feedback from your customers, are you channeling them into your business? What about your competitors, are you keeping a close eye on them? What about your employees, are you assessing their performance and productivity regularly?
Continuously seeking answers to the above questions will keep you up-to-date as you prepare for business growth.
4. Business Process
Irrespective of your business size, putting in place the right processes and policies will ease the running of your business. Also, to effectively and efficiently manage your workflow, you need the right tools and systems.
In the early stages of your businesses (especially startups), you might get away with not putting in place the right systems, but as your business grows, it will affect the business negatively. Ensure you take all measures to make your business have a strong foundation.
Also, make sure your business process is compliant with all the regulatory requirements.
5. Using Business Management Software.
Another way to prepare for business growth is using business management software that brings all aspects of your business from accounting, operations, human capital, sales all under a single dashboard. It unifies all units of business, giving you a 360-degree view of your business.
This software also automates business processes by saving up man-hours, reducing the risks associated with inefficiency or human efforts, enhancing business process consistency, improve customer satisfaction and lower HR costs, since it needs less human intervention.
To get started, reach out to SOFTCODES (a trusted Sage Business Partner with over 25+ years of experience).
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