Dealing with hockey stick growth can ruin a business just as much as a decline in business and, therefore, must be handled properly. In this section, we will look at some of the issues growth can cause and what a business can do to make the growth manageable.
Law of expansion: a brand’s power diminishes with a broader scope of offerings. Small businesses must prioritize focused branding for maximum impact.
While dealing with growth-related issues is often a problem, most owners would be more than happy to do it. However, it often requires the business to rethink its strategies.
As a business grows, the role of the CEO and the challenges the business will face change.
Too often, businesses confuse economies of scale with economies of scope.
Business growth is not a linear progression. Often expenses come in large chunks as the business grows, which is why business owners need to understand the Step Dynamic.
Growth often causes business owners to think that they have it all figured out, which leads to one of the most misunderstood executive disorders.
When a business owner achieves some success, it is only natural to consider the dreams of expanding the business. However, expansion comes with new risks and challenges.
As a business owner, when your business grows, you have to concentrate your efforts on where you can do the most good.
Expansion often leads to command and control-related issues. There are a few valuable lessons that a business owner can borrow from ISIS with regard to a more decentralized command and control system.
If a new physical location is required, a business needs to consider when it’s the right time to buy and when to lease space.
Business owners looking to grow their businesses need to master the three engines of growth.
How a business invests in growth can make the difference between running sideways, exposing it to excessive risk, and striding toward a goal.
However, a lot of businesses make the mistake of following the crowd, which often makes them too late for the party.
Business owners need to recognize that when it comes to growth, there is vertical and horizontal growth.
When a business relies too much on vertical growth strategies, it makes it very vulnerable. It is much better to grow with a more diversified customer base on a horizontal dimension.
When a business grows, it frequently attempts to break down its operational tasks into smaller units in order to create more routine tasks that can be performed by less skilled workers. Unfortunately, this can often backfire.
When it comes to expanding your employee base, you should consider outsourcing some tasks to experts on a part-time basis as opposed to hiring a full-time employee to do several smaller tasks they are less suited to perform.
Some of the best opportunities to grow a business present themselves during a contraction in the market.
Eventually, all growing businesses will need access to capital. So here is a guide to business financing that will be useful.
However, when a business’s financial requirements grow, owners will need to understand how lenders and investors use financial ratios to assess the financial stability of the business.
However, not all efforts directed toward the growth of a business will be met with success, so a business needs to know what to do when they exceed their estimates.
Finally, growth can be risky for many businesses. The following section will take you to another section devoted to ways to mitigate risk. The link will open a new tab to the Risk Aspects section for you to review. When done, you can simply close that tab and resume the discussion in this section.
Assess and Manage Risk
Click here to see how to assess and manage your business-related risk.