SMB Owner Pain Point: No Structured Process for Growth

| 4 minute read
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Whether you’re just getting started in business or you have built your business into a medium-sized operation, you’ll hit a roadblock if you don’t have a structured process for growth. At each stage of business growth, as Harvard Business Review researchers Neil Churchill and Virginia Lewis point out, you need a structured growth plan to clear out the roadblock and move forward.

For example, for a small business or start-up, cash flow and marketing are paramount; but for a medium-sized company, a budget that factors in growth, operating control that provides structure as the business grows, and a strategic plan that helps you get to the next step, might be top priorities.

As a business grows, it must adapt to changing trends and technologies. We would add that a business whose owner wants to lead in its niche must take the lead in adopting a leading-edge approach to business.
 

An Effective Strategy Plan for Growth

An effective growth strategy puts the processes in place for you to meet not only your current business’s needs, but also for your future needs as you grow. For example, a start-up owner needs to take a hands-on approach to many business processes. However, as the business grows, she or he needs to find talented people to delegate some of these processes to—and know how to select the right talent to take over those tasks.

As your business grows, you might need to automate and outsource some of your systems and processes. You might find that you achieve more sales through partnerships with third-party aggregators. For example, many businesses discover that selling their products through, say, Amazon.com opens them up to a whole new world of sales.
 

Growing Upward and Outward Requires the Right Process to Get You There

If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, you might need to move to larger premises—or even expand online--as you grow. If you don’t have the process already in place—or at least in your plans, you’ll likely hit a roadblock.

Or, you might want to diversify your offerings. If you’re a dental surgery, you might want to offer sleep apnoea testing and the devices to alleviate the condition. If you sell honey, you might want to branch out into selling beekeeping supplies or honey-infused foods. It all comes down to understanding what you can offer to your customers.


Growth Requires Change

The only way to move upward from a start-up to a budding enterprise is to have the willingness to change and the structured process that drives that change. So long as you’re willing to break through your roadblocks and change your process, your business has no bounds. To discover more about how to put the processes in place to achieve business growth, get in touch with the Strategic Specialists Group team today.

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