15 Steps to Help You Manage Business Growth

Companies involved in continuous growth cycles understand the need for effective growth management strategies. In order to sustain company operations while constantly innovating and developing, you may choose to analyze your staff, production and finances in relation to company goals. In this article, we discuss what business growth is and give 15 tips on how you can manage it in your company.

What is growth?

In business, growth is a term used for making improvements to a company’s success. You can measure growth through a variety of factors such as boosting revenue, generating more sales or minimizing costs. The method used to attain growth, and the factors used to measure it, may vary from company to company.

How to manage growth

Use these steps to learn how to manage growth within an organization:

1. Hire a talented team

Achieving company growth can start with hiring the right employees. Interns up to senior-level managers may all impact the growth potential of a company through their work ethic and decision-making responsibility. Choosing employees who value and want to achieve company goals may be the first step in setting an effective growth strategy.

2. Scale your business

Scaling a business means that as a company grows, so does the way it operates. Processes and partnerships that were effective for a smaller company may not operate the same way for a larger one. As a company grows, you may re-delegate tasks, redefine the managerial structure or change other aspects of operation to ensure the company runs efficiently through the growth process.

3. Choose a quality control method

Choose a quality control method that helps you provide customer service and satisfaction throughout your company’s growth. Determine what factors to include in your quality assurance plan, such as testing or reviews. You may appoint a new manager or team to handle quality control that scales with the business throughout the growth period.

4. Focus on your strengths

When choosing which areas of your business to grow, focus on your strengths. Consider capitalizing on factors that distinguish you from competitors or benefit your target audience. Using data and analytics may help determine these factors. You can document your findings for future reference in case your strengths change over time.

5. Define your growth aim

One important way to manage your company growth is to understand why you want to grow and how you want to grow. You may also set short-, mid- and long-term goals to understand what you’re growing toward. You may determine these factors by asking questions like:

• Do I have the capital to finance growth?

• How quickly should I be hiring within the company?

• Is my inventory sufficient to sustain growth?

• Is my production effective?

• Are we growing to become more profitable or just for the sake of growth?

Answering these questions and others may help you set SMART goals, or goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-sensitive. After you have set your goals, focus on moving from one mid-term goal to the next to stay productive and support the action needed to reach your long-term goals.

6. Run a growth diagnosis

Run a growth diagnosis on your company to see if your current practices align with the goals you set. Analyze how you manage the company and how the employees and teams interact and co-exist within the organization. Look at your financial numbers such as your sales, overhead, assets and inventory. Determine how much cash flow your capital and inventory absorb. Change your processes to meet your goals if necessary.

7. Prepare a growth strategy

Use all the data you have collected so far to prepare a growth strategy plan. You may run a SWOT—strength, weakness, opportunity and threat—analysis or another kind of market analysis to determine what factors to include in your plan. Consider things such as your internal resources, the market, the economy, demographics, marketing distribution channels and competitors to determine where you can make changes. Your strategy may align goals with specific factors. It may also give suggestions for how to meet those goals or how to achieve growth in relation to the larger market.

8. Predict cash needs

Study your cash inflow and outflow to determine the future cash needs to support growth. This may help you determine where you can make improvements in your financial sector, such as if you’ll need to secure additional working capital, restructure your debt or convert unused assets into useable cash.

9. Analyze your accounts

Analyze your accounts payable and receivable to improve your liquidity and sustain the finances needed for growth. In accounts receivable, you may:

• Change collection methods.

• Freeze defaulting accounts.

• Run credit checks on clients.

• Monitor collection time.

• Reevaluate your credit policy.

• Update or simplify your payment terms.

Similarly in accounts payable, you may:

• Ask for an extension on commercial credit.

• Evaluate your interest rates.

• Reevaluate your payment timelines.

10. Control your costs

Search for methods that allow you to control your costs while increasing your profits. Set goals for cutting costs that prevent interference with quality control and customer satisfaction. Consider switching suppliers, securing better rates or adding the option for remote employment, if applicable. Talk with your finance department and other members of your team to find cost-saving options at every level.

11. Control your debts

Meet with lending and credit organizations to discuss ways to control company debt. When adding new debt, such as loans or financing options on necessary equipment, research the lowest possible interest rates. Create a plan for paying back your debt in a timely manner that may include making and adhering to a strict repayment schedule.

12. Consider refinancing

To control existing company debt, consider refinancing to make more capital available in the short-term. Refinancing can help reduce monthly payments by rescheduling the payment plan and making it last longer. Refinancing may lead to lower interest rates or the combination of multiple loans into one loan to make them easier to manage. Refinancing may also include options for flexible-term financing to suit your specific needs. When refinancing, most lending organizations establish debt repayment conditions, which you must fulfill in order to earn these benefits.

13. Protect your intellectual property

Work to protect your growth through securing rights to your company’s intellectual property. Consider trademarking your company’s name and logo or getting patents for unique products or inventions. By owning the rights to this intellectual property, competitors can’t take or use your ideas without providing proper compensation. This may ensure that your company can grow without outside threats.

14. Ensure sustainable growth

Though you may have short-term goals for your growth, ensure that your growth plan and management strategy allows for long-term success as well. Rather than being satisfied with seasonal or one-time growth, find ways in your finance and production sectors to continue developing and achieving more valuable accomplishments over time.

15. Re-evaluate your plan consistently

Re-evaluate your growth management strategy regularly such as monthly, quarterly or yearly. Determine which goals you’ve met and which you’re still working to accomplish. Consider doing additional analysis reports at these intervals to see how the market or outside factors have changed since you created your plan. You can make adjustments to your strategy for continued growth based on new data.

 

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