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Last Updated on January 20, 2024 by Work In My Pajamas
When you first start your home business, naturally you have dreams and hopes that it will, eventually, grow big. However, when those dreams are not substantiated with plans, and that growth happens before you are ready for it, you may feel lost and unsure of your choices. That is why managing rapid growth of your home business can be the most anxiety-ridden time of your life. Challenging as it is, you will agree, that it is still a more pleasant experience than, say, filing for bankruptcy. Overnight success does not happen often, but it is a possibility, so it is better to be prepared for it. Here are some tips to successfully meet the expansion.
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Increase Your Staff
Sooner or later, you will face with the fact that you cannot do it all by yourself. When the demand for your product or service starts growing, you need to hire qualified employees to help meet that demand. If you do not, the increased number of clients will quickly decrease. They will realize that you are not capable of fulfilling their needs and move on to the competition. Keep in mind that it takes at least 6 months for new employees to get used to their duties and become fully productive, so it is better to hire more people ahead. Finding people who are experienced in your niche should be your priority, since you will save yourself the time required for training them.
Upgrade Your Office
When starting a home business people usually work from any available room in their home, where there is a chair and a place to put a computer. And usually that is enough, because you work alone and your home-based business is just a part-time job at the beginning. When your business starts to grow, you will spend significantly more time in your office, so you will need to create a stimulating and productive environment. According to people from JP Office Workstations, prolonged sitting on an uncomfortable chair can lower your productivity and cause health issues. To avoid that equip your home office with an ergonomic chair and an appropriate desk. If your startup continues to grow more than your room can handle, consider renting a bigger space.
Choose Quality over Quantity
With the increasing number of clients you will have more problems meeting deadlines. Every client you accept is a new deadline to meet, so you should consider refusing additional work. Missing your deadline or delivering a product/service of poor quality is much worse than refusing a client. This can earn you bad reputation which can become impossible to shake off. Be aware of your possibilities and when you think you cannot get the job done, refuse kindly and apologize.
Improve Organization
As the company is going through expansion, some changes in policies, procedures and ladders are bound to happen. Communicate with your staff and explain the changes to them. Make sure you ask for feedback that could ease the transition. Some people will have to be appointed to team leaders, because with the larger number of employees you will not be able to keep up with everything. If there is some area you cannot get a handle off, such as IT or accounting, try to find a reliable firm and outsource those departments.
Balance the Making and the Spending of Money
Rapid growth can often lead to overextending yourself financially. You will need to be constantly aware of that possibility and oversee the balance between the money made and the money spent. Sure, you will have to invest that money in various tools, equipment and salaries, in order to continue growing, but you must make sure your investments will not deplete your budget before they start actually paying off. Take it one day at the time, and always have a clear image of your possibilities and needs. That does not mean relying solely on intuition, but also conducting market researches, observing the competition asking for clients’ feedback, etc.
As you see, expansion of a small business is far from being a nightmare, but it can become one if you do not handle it properly. Your ability to adjust to changes will determine will you get out of this situation as a winner or a looser.
