Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
One of the most difficult things for any small to mid-sized business is dealing with growing pains. Leaders often don’t recognize that they are in the midst of growing pains until it is too late and they are in the throes of constant fires that stem from rapid business growth.
While there are multiple causes for this, one of the biggest mistakes I see CEOs make is their lack of investing and planning for growth. Certainly, they plan for top line growth, aka more sales, but the backend–the operational side, the delivery side, the technology side–gets put on hold. Why? Most CEOs find preparing for growth is a balancing act of being able to afford to bring on more resources (people, technology, etc.) vs. managing the bottom line. The concern is legitimate but the cost of not funding for growth is significant.
So your business is on the upswing. The good news is that you are growing! The bad is that you are growing. As you hit different revenue milestones, those who have not planned and funded for growth deal with very real and often costly consequences:
Systems and processes break (or they aren’t even present because you didn’t need them when you were smaller).
People leave the organization – really good people – because they are frustrated with the challenges and lack of action or response from leadership.
The lack of technology to make things more efficient – internally and externally – costs you money, time and energy.
The customer experience suffers because you don’t have the resources to deliver what you have committed to.
Something else that I see happening is something that I don’t see … as the CEO or leader in an organization it is imperative that you get out of your office and “walk the floor.” Talk to your employees, hear what they are saying about what is working and what isn’t. Get out into the field and talk to customers (this can be by phone too depending on geography) to see how things are going for them.
Often, business owners plan for a certain number of resources based on their business analytics and previous performance; but, as they grow and things become more complex, the numbers aren’t panning out. People and systems get stretched too thin. Balls are getting dropped. Like I said, it is only naturaly that things break.
So, as you are growing, constantly review your budget and analyze what investments you need to make in order to keep the train on the track and your company growing in a healthy and manageable way.
By Blair Koch
