During the early days, it might feel as though you are in the most difficult time for your young business. After all, the statistics are pretty damning – a lot of young companies just don’t survive beyond those first couple of years.
Well, here’s some bad news; it’s going to get harder when you try and expand. Sure, massive congratulations are in order if you feel as though you are ready to take your company to the next level, but it’s far from easy. There are pitfalls, and the purpose of today’s article is to take a look at some tips which can help you along the way.
Be wary about growing too quickly
The prospect of growing too quickly sounds ridiculous but trust us, it does happen, and it can be destructive.
The easiest way to manage quick growth is to just question some of your key commitments. In other words, do you really need a giant warehouse, or will secure storage units do the job? Then, when it comes to employees, do you really need full-time workers or can you tap into the gig economy and eliminate another long-term commitment?
Don’t forget your existing customer base
One of the biggest pitfalls that a lot of companies make is forgetting what has got them to this position in the first place.
In other words, they are so focused about attracting new customers, they forget about the ones who have been with them for years.
Suffice to say, this is a recipe for disaster. As well as the obvious benefits of keeping existing customers happy, let’s also not forget that if they are happy with your service there is an increased chance they are going to refer other people – and be a fantastic source of growth themselves.
Build as much data as can be
Sure, you’re still quite small, and you’re certainly not in a position to build a full-scale in-house analysis team.
However, that doesn’t mean to say that you can’t tap into as much data as your budget allows. As you attempt to scale to the next level, you need to know where your customers are coming from, and what they are doing. In other words, you need to know exactly the areas your next round of funding needs to be ploughed into, so you can scale the things that have been working so well up until now.
Tap into economies of scale
Sometimes, it’s not all about attracting new customers. Sure, this is a big part of growth, but it also comes with other side effects.
The main one comes in the form of economies of scale. Due to the way in which some businesses are structured, it’s not going to be possible for everyone to take advantage of. However, as soon as you start to see increased volumes of sales come in, finding out if you can save through this method should be the top of your priorities. In fact, you should probably do it before you even take action to expand in the first place – and grab the savings as early as possible.
