Growing pains – managing company growth without the chaos
Blog Post
Your business is growing, well done! All the hard work you and your team have put in has paid off, but this is just the beginning. A corporate expansion comes with a whole host of other risks, headaches and hurdles. The number of people, processes, and responsibilities are all set to increase and this needs to be managed carefully. if you grow too fast or fail to manage the rise, you can quickly find yourselves in trouble. Here are 5 top strategies to navigate the minefield of growth and avoid your business falling foul of these lurking pitfalls:
As revenue increases, so does the temptation to spend. Often the first purchase to accommodate growth is a shiny new office with loads of space and all the mod-cons. Don’t forget the Foosball table! It’s certainly no crime to aim for an upgrade to your physical work environment. However, there are more sensible and safer ways of getting the space you need. APSO provides stunning serviced offices that are flexible enough to grow with you. They present a professional front to clients, as well as a host of other benefits for a fraction of the cost of that trendy, but pricey new office you’re thinking of leasing and hiring.
In the early days, employees of your start-up businesses may have worn many ‘hats’, performing a multitude of disparate tasks, as everyone pitched in to get the venture off the ground. Once things start to take off, you can afford to hire more support staff. Nevertheless, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Payroll is the single weightiest cost for the majority of businesses. So, keeping headcount down can help avoid company spend blowing out of control. Serviced offices provide secretarial and business support services to handle essential tasks as reception, call forwarding, mail, and appointment scheduling. You can grow and save on clerical and admin staff, as it’s all included in the monthly bill of your office.
When a business experiences a period of rapid growth, there is the temptation to demand ‘all hands on deck’, with everyone in the office and at their desk from 9-5. Instead of growth, you’ll see a workforce that is burned out, demotivated, and unproductive. Give staff the freedom, flexibility, autonomy and trust they need to achieve their goals. This may mean allowing staff to take breaks when they want, work flexible hours, or work from home on designated days. All this helps them to achieve enhanced work-life balance, which will keep them fresher and better emotionally equipped to handle the rigours that a busy professional life imposes on the modern worker. While many managers prefer to have their employees where they can see them, staff thrive when given the trust and respect that they are capable of managing their time effectively when working outside the office.
If the financial responsibilities of growing your business seem more trouble than they are worth, then going fully virtual or offering the flexibility to work from home can help ease the pressure. Entire teams can collaborate, discuss, share projects, and meet from any place they choose. For a growing business, the main benefit of going virtual is that it eliminates the need for physical space and the associated price tag. Additionally, study after study has conclusively shown that telecommuting leads to increased productivity, rather than slacking off, which is perfect for the needs of a thriving business! APSO can help your business keep its professional appearance while going virtual. With a virtual office solution, you can have a physical office address, reception, and a meeting room when you need to be face-to-face with clients.
Don’t forget to take the time to acknowledge the hard work that got your business to the position it is today. A team who feels unappreciated will not be motivated to keep up the required pace for this new growth period. Let your team know that they are valued and encourage them to keep going and do even better in the future. Using these 5 simple ideas you can capitalise on your new position and use it as a springboard to take your business to the next level. Contact APSO today to find out how serviced offices and virtual solutions can benefit your growing business.
