How to Stay Nimble and Flexible as Your Company Grows
As a small business owner, you face many challenges, from raising capital and finding customers to attracting qualified workers and making payroll. At the same time, your organization has some distinct advantages as well.
Large and well-established companies are often hamstrung by their size with huge bureaucracies that can make even simple decisions difficult. Small businesses, on the other hand, are not hampered by “red tape”. Compared to their larger counterparts, small businesses can be more agile and more flexible and that can be a competitive advantage in a fast-moving world.
When your business is small, you can enjoy those potential advantages. And if you serve your customers well, growth is almost inevitable. How you handle the growth phase of your small business can make all the difference and not every small company manages the process well. If you want your organization to beat the odds, you need to be strategic about your growth prospects. Here are some tips to best poise your small business for growth.
Fund Growth with Current Profits
As your small business grows, so does its profitability. That is good news and it presents a powerful opportunity for smart and debt-free growth. But the growth of your small business also comes with big challenges including the managing your personal and business finances.
When your business was small, handling its finances may have been relatively easy, but rapid growth creates more complexities. If your business outgrows its accounting system, for instance, you may need to hire an outside CPA to manage your money and keep your finances in order. That will mean incurring added costs, potentially reducing profit margins in the future.
There are ways to manage growth effectively, even in the face of these additional challenges. By funding growth with current profits, you can avoid the crippling debt that has doomed so many businesses to failure. This balancing act may force you to grow more slowly, but maintaining a debt-free status could be incredibly valuable down the line.
Related: How to Manage Rapid Business Growth
Focus On Your Customers
As you look toward the future, it is important to not lose sight of the past. Specifically, business owners must remember what got them there—namely the loyal customers who make success possible.
More than one small business has lost sight of its customers and they have paid a price. No matter how fast you are growing or how many new customers have come on board, serving your existing clients remains a critical part of your growth strategy.
Related: Concentrate on Current Customers to Boost Your Profits
Build a Great Team
Hiring the right people is always important, but finding qualified workers is even more critical when you are growing. It can be tempting to let your hiring standards slide, especially when current employees are stretched thin, but one wrong hire could put your growth prospects in jeopardy.
The owners of small businesses on a growth track must walk a fine line when making hiring decisions. They need to maintain the strict hiring standards they used when building their initial team, all while attracting new workers to the organization. This can be a delicate balancing act, but it is also an important one.
Emphasize Your Strengths
Successful business owners know their strengths and acknowledge their weaknesses. Entrepreneurs and small business owners seek out team members who possess strengths they lack and that complementary hiring is even more important during periods of rapid growth.
By focusing on your strengths, small business owners can build a better future. Conducting an honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses can make managing growth easier and more effective.
Seek Out New Opportunities
Being a growing small business presents a number of opportunities and it is important to seize those chances. Keeping your existing stable of customers happy is essential, but that does not mean missing out on new buyers or neglecting growing markets.
By seeking out new opportunities, small businesses can grow more effectively, boosting their profits, increasing cash flow and building a better future. This smart growth will not happen on its own but it is certainly possible.
Related: 10 Financial Management Tips for a Growing Business
The Bottom Line
Building a small business is always a tough job, but growing the size of the company can be even harder. As your small business outgrows its roots and starts to spread its wings, you are faced with both challenges and opportunities. The way you manage that growth phase could make all the difference, and it is important to handle these opportunities with care.
Improve Your Company’s Cash Flow
Whether your business is thriving and you can’t keep up, or you are waiting on clients to pay, Universal Funding can help your growing company. Call us at 800.405.6035 or complete our rate form today to learn more about invoice factoring and how it can improve your company’s cash flow.
About Universal Funding
Universal Funding is a nationwide invoice factoring solutions leader, supporting growth-focused businesses with scalable factoring solutions. With its invoice factoring, payroll funding, and purchase order financing services, Universal Funding provides clients with the working capital needed to grow and support their businesses without taking on new debt. Ranked as one of the nation’s top invoice factoring companies, Universal Funding provides cash flow financing for businesses all across the United States.