Avoid these pitfalls of expanding too fast
Growth is exciting, but there could be unforeseen issues that pop up when your business is expanding too fast. Here’s what to avoid.
You’ve beaten the odds and despite current market conditions, your business is experiencing accelerated growth. This is a dream scenario and it’s an exciting milestone to see the signs of growth after years of diligently building upon your strategy.
But hold on there speed racer! Even if it seems to be the right time to expand, proceed with a bit of caution. If your business grows too quickly, it could derail everything you’ve worked for.
Before putting more gas in the engine, here are three potential pitfalls of your business expanding too fast:
1. Making the wrong hires
If you’re having a hard time meeting customer demand, then you’re probably feeling anxious to hire new employees. Payroll will be one of your biggest expenses, so you want to make sure to hire individuals who seem to have the same values as your company.
First of all, you should only hire as many employees as you need. Outline the jobs you are looking to fill and ask yourself whether each one is really necessary at this point.
Secondly, pay attention to the candidate’s experience and how well they fit with your current staff. Hiring the wrong person is hard on your company, could add turnover expenses and can hurt employee morale.
2. Spreading yourself too thin
This is a common problem that occurs from growing too fast. Owners often find it difficult to keep track of everything and manage business operations when there’s so much happening. When things become too chaotic, it’s hard to step back and get an objective look at your business needs.
Still, a certain amount of growing pains is normal when you’re expanding your business. But if your staff can’t keep up and your processes are breaking down, you should slow down.
To proactively avoid disruptions, expect certain warning signs of business failure. It’s rare that there aren’t indicators that your business is about to start breaking down, so if you know what to look out for in advance, you stand a better chance of avoiding them.
Look out for these 5 warning signs of business failure before it’s too late.
3. Issues with customer service
When your company expands, the demand for customer service will grow as well. It can be tough to deliver the same level of service as you did when you were smaller and had fewer customers to deal with.
The biggest sign of customer service issues is a sudden increase in complaints. Whether you have just a few or many coming in, you should always listen to and respond to these complaints immediately. On the upside, you will hopefully create a more positive customer experience in the long-term, and handling these issues will show you areas where your business can improve.
You don’t have to turn down new business
There are times when an opportunity comes along that you can’t turn down, but you need extra working capital in order to take it on. With alternative funding solutions such as Invoice Factoring, Asset-based Lending or PO Financing you can gain increased flexibility towards long-term success.
Ready for help? Access the working capital you need with Liquid Capital’s Alternative Funding Solutions.
At Liquid Capital, we understand what it takes for small, medium, and emerging mid-market businesses to succeed – because we’re business people ourselves. Our company is built on a network of locally owned and operated Principal Offices, so whenever you’re talking to Liquid Capital, you’re talking directly to your funding source and a fellow business person.
