Growing pains. Everyone has experienced them from time to time. From the literal sense where people often experience growing pains during late childhood, or possibly in difficult relationships, or maybe the pain originates in a growing business. All of these growing pains can make people feel the same way—frustrated and overwhelmed.
There will always be challenging relationships in our lives and growing pains in childhood will be painful until they are outgrown. While uncomfortable, neither of these kinds of growing pains are going to kill you and you are usually able to ignore them to some degree. This isn’t at all true when it comes to a growing business. If growing pains in this area are ignored, it can easily begin the demise of the business that took you blood, sweat, and tears to build.
Here are Five Ways to Stay on Top of a Growing Business:
1. Know your Business
After all, if you don’t, who is going to? To begin with, your competitors will and believe me, they will capitalize on it. Know your business’ strengths and weaknesses and work them to your advantage. Knowing all the ins and outs of your business will help to keep it all in the proper perspective and allow you to lead your company with better results.
2. Learn to Delegate
This is often looked at as the enemy to many entrepreneurs because it is incredibly hard to let go of a piece of something that they have created and invested in so heavily. Change the way you look at delegation and look at it as an opportunity to multiply your efforts. Train people to do a task properly and then let them do it. You may be surprised at the excellent work that people are capable of doing when they feel valued and trusted.
3. Look Ahead
Forecast the future of your business and plan for growth in the best ways possible. By looking ahead and calculating what to expect, you can avoid having panic set in when your business takes off at the speed of light because you will be as prepared as possible.
4. Access your Resources
There are so many tools to help businesses run more efficiently and effectively. There are very reputable project management tools that can help you and your employees work at the best capacity possible. In addition, do not be afraid to outsource. If the brakes went out on your car, you’d call a mechanic—have the same mentality when it comes to your business. For example, you should get acquainted with SAP, a premier leader in business development strategy (www.grom.com). If your growing business seems to need more attention day by day, you will have to be more attentive or find ways to save time in order to keep up with the demand. SAP can help you in that area. The old saying “Time is money” is true, and you want to make sure that you are spending it wisely.
5. Stay Focused
It is very easy to lose focus when you are feeling frustrated or overwhelmed. The same is true even in a business setting. Every now and then, take time and remind yourself why you do what you do. Look at your businesses purpose statement as a quick refresher to gain some inspiration and to rejuvenate yourself. Remembering the vision that got you here in the first place can be just the energy shot that you need to keep up with the growing demands of your business.