Friday, December 5, 2008

Is It Time to Grow?

By Craig Calvin

At the beginning of a business, it is important to focus on the growth factor. That includes growing your base of customers as well as the product lines. Once you are established, it may be hard to get out of the growth mentality. It is now time to figure out exactly how much growth is needed at that juncture.

The first thing to consider is whether you truly want to be a bigger business. This would mean not just a change in profit, but a change in the company's organization as well as a change in your duties. You will need to build infrastructure and hire management personnel. You may find that, instead of a hands-on owner, you are relegated to a desk and forced to spend your time in dealing with meetings and human resources issues. Along with the higher revenue potential, your business will have higher liability and an increased potential for disaster.

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.

Keep in mind that once you have employees, you will need somewhere for them to work. This means overhead of office area, phone lines, internet, etc. IT can cost a lot of money to set up a business. Loans can come in handy, but they will also take away from your profit.

The last thing to consider is whether you have time to grow right now. Building a business at a rapid rate is a time consuming process that will need to take first priority in your life. Most business owners are trying to achieve homeostasis in their life and to achieve some work-life balance, and doing this while growing a business can be next to impossible. The process can take years, so you should not undertake this at a time when your personal life is going to demand attention. You will need a solid support system in place, so make sure all other aspects of your life are solid before beginning the growing process. - 16928

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