When Mathew Carpenter started the website "Ship Your Enemies Glitter", he wasn't planning on the avalanche of orders from around the world. Within days, he ended up suspending sales and ultimately selling the site because he couldn't keep up with demand. Even though he pocketed a profit, he ultimately lost money by being unable to deal with the rapid growth of a business. While every small business owner dreams of unbridled success, few take meaningful steps to plan for that to actually happen. Instead of losing out, think about these problems and preparations to be ready for rapid business growth.
Prepare for More Employees
The rapid growth of a business rarely happens without the addition of more employees. Adding personnel during a surge in sales can be a recipe for disaster. New employees need training and without it, productivity and customer satisfaction can suffer. Prepare your business for growth by developing a strategy to seamlessly add more staff.
How to Prepare:
A workforce management system is an essential tool for businesses that can best be utilized prior to immediate growth of a business. By setting up training modules, importing human resources policies and procedures, and establishing job duties and functions prior to business growth, new employees can transition into their jobs more easily and ease the burden on experienced employees by providing a base with which to start training.
Time to Delegate
Many who experience the rapid growth of a business find that on top of having to hire more employees, they also need to find something for those employees to do. When businesses are small, positions are highly specialized and usually unshared. Expanding staffing and experiencing immediate growth of a business means teaching those responsibilities to new employees.
How to Prepare:
Before you grow, create a staffing plan that encompasses who will be added, their job responsibilities, and how to train that staff. By having a plan in place prior to rapid growth of a business, owners can easily transition into business growth rather than scrambling to fill in the gaps. An additional benefit of discussing job responsibilities is training current employees on a wider variety of duties.
Not a Tax Expert?
There's more to expanding productivity and staffing than just training. Bigger businesses are held to more stringent standards in terms of taxes and payroll. Rapidly expanding businesses realize when they need more sales staff or more product, but they don't often realize when they outgrow their DIY payroll and tax services.
How to Prepare:
Using a payroll and tax service is a simple way to eliminate the threat of costly penalties and potential payroll losses. Relying on tax and payroll experts can take away the stress of attempting to keep up-to-date with ever-changing tax rules and regulations. Prior to growth, utilizing automated payroll services and outsourced tax services can help ease the transition between small business to rapid growth.
Keep Up With Demand
One of the biggest challenges during rapid growth of a business is the demand for more resources. Whether you bake cupcakes or create art, quality resources are hard to find and rapidly expanding can cause a reduction in the overall quality of your products. That decrease in quality hurts growth and customer satisfaction.
How to Prepare:
While you may have a supply line in place, dedicating a portion of your day to quality control is essential. Even during busy periods, taking the time to ensure that each batch of product is up to standards or each associate is meeting company goals. Preparing for increases in production is tantamount to continued success.
