by Contributing Author
It’s time to grow your business, but how can you make sure that you do it the right way? The approach will be different for everyone, but you can also avoid some of the main pitfalls discussed below.
Moving Too Quickly
Expanding too quickly or too early can be a mistake for a number of reasons, but one of the main is because there may not actually be a need for it. Do your customers need more space, or are they demanding more products or services? If the answer to both of these questions is no, you may want to wait before you take the next step.
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Another reason this can be disastrous is that you might lack the capacity to keep up with the growth. Make sure that you hire additional staff or acquire additional resources if necessary, and if you cannot afford to do so, you probably also can’t afford to expand at present. It is essential to know how to cope with financial worries but this is an example of a time when you can possibly save yourself the stress by not making a hasty decision regarding expansion.
Not Addressing Current Issues
You can’t expand your way out of every problem. In some situations, your next move should not be growing but shoring up what already exists by making sure that everyone has the necessary resources to do their job. If your company has a fleet, before expanding, you need to make sure it is operating in a cost-effective manner. The good thing is Samsara’s offers a comprehensive management solution that can help with proactive vehicle maintenance, making last-minute repairs and accidents less likely. Addressing an issue such as this instead of simply continuing to grow is important.
Getting Distracted
If you are an entrepreneur, you probably have an active, curious mind. This is great, but it can make it difficult to focus on the business at hand. Be sure that you don’t lose sight of your company’s mission and that you aren’t just expanding because you are bored with the status quo. Furthermore, you need to be choosy about the opportunities that you pursue. It can be tempting to race after every new thing, but this can mean you don’t build the foundation that you need for expansion.
Not Doing the Groundwork
Even if your instinct tells you it’s time to expand, you still need to lay some groundwork. First, you should try to estimate what the costs will be and make sure that you can cover them. Next, you need to take a look at the competition. It can be more important than ever as you grow to learn how to make your business stand out and what you can offer that they cannot.
Keep in mind as well that by the nature of expanding, you may be acquiring new and bigger competitors. You may need to have a strategy in mind to deal with them. Furthermore, becoming more systematic about how you do everything will also be important when you are larger. This can mean documenting processes because you are also probably going to have to learn how to delegate more. Having this documentation can allow the new people that you bring on to step into their roles more easily.
