Growth is vital to the ongoing success of your business, but creating sustainable growth can be a challenge. It’s easy to lose touch with your mission, your brand, and — most notably — your customers. It’s also easy to create operational bottlenecks or take on too many expenses too quickly and jeopardize your cash flow. Whether you’re planning on expanding into new markets or investing in marketing strategies to grow your existing customer base, finding ways to secure stable and sustainable growth is key.
Cover Your Legal Bases
As your business grows, so will your responsibilities. Keeping up with regulations, taxes, and other legal requirements can get complicated quickly, so make sure you cover all your legal bases before you grow too big. This will also help protect your business from lawsuits.
If you’re still operating your business as a sole proprietorship, it’s a good idea to look at your other options before expanding. For example, forming an LLC will shield you from liability and protect your personal assets in the event of a lawsuit. ZenBusiness explains that limited liability companies also enjoy tax benefits and flexible management options. As long as you understand the regulations around forming an LLC in your state, you can register your LLC online to avoid hiring a lawyer.
Outsource Whenever Possible
Your workload is also going to grow as your business expands. Make sure you’re ready to handle the additional demand on your time and resources. If you’re anticipating obstacles in this department, outsourcing might be your solution. You can outsource anything from bookkeeping to social media management. Outsource everything to experienced freelancers to free up time so your immediate team can focus on the things that matter most, like caring for your customers.
Keep Your Customers Front and Center
There’s a reason why big businesses seem so impersonal. It’s because they don’t have the time or resources to care for their customers in the same way that small businesses can. Be careful to avoid this as you grow your business. In fact, this is a great opportunity to double-down on your customer satisfaction strategy. Look for ways to bring more value to the customer experience as you grow. This is a good time to implement customer relationship management (CRM) software so you can more easily manage interactions with your customers and organize customer data in one place.
Monitor Your Progress
Monitoring key business metrics is critical to tracking your growth progress. Before you can do this, you will need to establish some key performance indicators (KPIs) that will let you make sense of all your data and see how well you are achieving your goals. For example, some common KPIs include gross profit margins, website traffic growth, and customer support ticket backlog. Measuring KPIs like these will give your team objectives to work towards as you pursue business growth.
Once you’re clear on the metrics you want to track, establish a plan for monitoring this information. There are countless online and software-based tools that can help you keep an eye on your profit margins, cash flow, website analytics, customer satisfaction, employee performance, and more. Take advantage of tools that offer seamless integration with other software your business is using to make progress monitoring as easy and effortless as possible.
As you monitor your progress, you may find that you’ll need additional funding. When this happens, it’s important to secure the right financing that fits your business situation. When you work with a group like SmartBiz Loans, their team will help you secure financing at the best and lowest cost for your business, in addition to being matched with a lender who’s most likely to provide funding. Be wise about your loan, however, and don’t overextend yourself here.
Expanding a small business without suffering growing pains requires effective planning and attention to proactive problem-solving. Get caught up on your legal obligations, outsource extra work, prioritize your customers, and measure your progress every step of the way. Aim for slow and steady growth, and you’ll have the best shot at success!
Are you looking for a loan to support your growing business? SmartBiz Loans helps you connect with the right lender for your funding needs.
