Friday, December 5, 2008

Growth Might Be The Next Step For Your Business

By Craig Calvin

When you are just starting your business, growth is the only way to survive. You need to build your customer base, build your product selection, and build your business to the success you always knew it could be. However, once a business is established, it's hard to get out of this growth mentality and focus on the long term plan. It's important for a business owner to ask themselves how much growth is right for their business at this time.

First, you need to decide if you want to be a larger business. This change would mean that your responsibilities change as well as the whole company's structure and profit. You would have to hire management, which could mean you will spend less hands on time, and more time in meetings. As your company grows, your risk for disaster does, too.

Another thing to consider is whether you can find the talented employees and managers you can trust to act in your place as the business grows. If you personally know of talented, skilled human resources staff and business managers, you're in a great place. If you are not in this fortunate situation, you will have to evaluate your ability to locate, attract, train, and adequately compensate the kind of staff you will need.

You will need space to house these talented staff and work to keep them profitable, which is why increased overhead is the next concern. Office space is expensive, and your staff will also need land and cell phone lines as well as personal computers and even company vehicles. If your business depends on services, you will need the equipment to provide them as well as an increased supply of the product you sell. This requires a huge amount of money. You can get loans to cover this, but the payments will take a steep cut into your profit and viability.

Finally, you need to figure out if you will have the time to devote to growth. It is a very time consuming process and has to be top priority. It can be difficult to do that as well as have a home life. Don't expect a quick change, it can take years to achieve growth. Be sure you have a fairly stable personal life before undertaking the task. It is ideal to have everything else in order beforehand. - 16089

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