Starting a business is hard: those early days when you work every hour, doing it all yourself, and trying to wear all the business hats – bookkeeper, salesperson, manager and janitorial – at the same time.
But once your small business has taken off and you’ve built up a good stable of customers and been able to hire others to carry some of the burden of the business, you still can’t relax, especially if you are looking to make the leap from SME (Small-to-medium enterprise) to large, possibly multinational, company. Businesses need to be managed carefully to transition from one to the other – let’s take a look at why and how you should do it right.
Overexpansion comes with danger
Taking your small business and just increasing everything tenfold is a great way to cause your business to implode. Ten times the sales, for example, does not require ten times the sales staff, nor do you need to rent or buy enormous premises which will come with huge overheads that will rapidly drain away your turnover.
Scale your business up in a measured way, consulting experts to help you decide between what is necessary for growth and what costs can be reduced or kept to a minimum.
Hire the right people
Instead of employing a lot of people, hire just a few, but make sure they’re the right people. Use the services of business employment experts such as Eagle Headhunters, a recruitment company which will carefully sift through hundreds of applications to make sure you are presented with a short list of perfect potential
hires.
Putting the right team in place and setting up a good team structure is more important than having a lot of people in the office.
Who is your perfect customer?
Small businesses sell to everyone! If they show an interest, you will market towards them, and hope for a couple of sales, counting each one as a win. But as you grow, it becomes less profitable to spend time on these niche sales – the once every six months or so sales – if you have a sales force to find wages for every month.
As you grow, you should aim to increase your market base, yes, but you should begin to narrow down on clients who will order large amounts of product (or service) every month. Of course, do not completely neglect your small-order clients – just do not invest in a lot of marketing and promotion in that direction.
Set your brand identity
Small businesses throng the ad sites, and many of them seem all but interchangeable. As you begin to grow – or even right from the start, if you are determined to be a big player in the industry – start to establish your brand identity. This involves choosing a memorable logo and mission statement, so you are a recognisable business, but it also means ensuring that customer satisfaction is high, that reviews are positive and that your name and business becomes associated with good services and products, positive after-sales care and a reputation for excellence.
