Business Growth Part 1.
For any Business owner, especially for when we just start a business of, growing your Business is important, normally in the first instance, growing your business, relies on growing your client base, or selling more product or services.
However, as your time in Business goes on, there can be a couple of different ways to grow your business, which include,
- Selling more of your product/ service
- Adding a new Products or Services to what you started offering
Sometimes we need to consider, what other resources we require to add another Product or Service to our list in which we offer our clients, other resources could include,
- Equipment- required to make the product
- People- especially if you don’t have the skills to offer the service or product.
- Office equipment to support more staff
One important thing to remember prior to planning the growth of your business, which does take some planning, is just because you increase your staff numbers, e.g. start employing staff, it does not always mean your Profits will remain the same, as you have extra costs to your business, including wages, uniforms, equipment, Super, Work cover, which you need to cover, whether money is coming into the Business or not……..E.g. if your business has a slack week, can you cover your costs. I have heard many Business owners, saying they were not ready to employ staff or the stress of employing staff is high, due to ensuring the work is always there, and yet the profit I make is not always as good as it was prior to employing staff.
What do we need to consider before growing our Business.
Services/ Products.
What do I need to do in order to being able to offer another/new product/ service to my potential or current clients?
Knowing the exact costs of commencing the new service/ product is vital and can ensure we include all costs in our future Budgets.
Do I have the knowledge and skills to offer the service or to produce/ design the new products or do I need to find and recruit new Staff who can help me to offer this service, and or Product, and at what costs is this going to be to the Business, especially prior to selling the new service and or product.
Are there any legal requirements, issues that I need to consider before introducing my new product or service, do I need any special licences, do I need to be registered by a relevant Government Department.
What does the Industry expect someone to have or do before offering the service and or Product.
Personnel,
Do I currently have the skills or the Staff levels to offer the new service and or product?
Do I need to go through the recruitment phase of finding suitable staff to be able to include the new service and or product into my range?
What costs is there to employing staff? Am I going to employ myself? Do I need to use a recruitment agency to find suitable staff? Am I going to write my own job Descriptions, Policy and Procedures for the business or will I need to use an outside HR consultant to help me, and at what costs to the company? Will I employ someone full time, Part time, or on a contract basis.
Do I have sufficient funds, e.g. 6-8 weeks of employees entitlements saved up, if not more, depending on the time it takes to produce your new product, and or service and making your first sale. You will need to check the Fair Work Website, to find out the current award rate for your industry to find out the weekly/ monthly wage of an employee in your industry.
Market Research.
As with any new product or Service it is important to do your Market research, and ensure you understand the market out there, and your target market/ client, e.g. who will be likely to purchase from you- makes the Marketing easier.
An important question – will someone pay something for the service and or Product, as knowing it is a good idea is not sufficient, you need to know someone will pay something and actually purchase it.
Maybe try and find out a rough guide of what people will be prepared to pay for it, and this can help with your pricing, but also if it is going to be a valuable item to add to your business, as sometimes people are willing to pay a rate below what it will cost you to provide or produce the service.
Summary
Whether you are just starting your Business or wanting to grow your Business, and after all once started we all want to grow our Business to ensure we are successful, however just a matter of how far we want to grow your Business… However we need to plan for the growth of the Business, if your Business just grows without the planning phase, it can be seen as a bonus, however it can also be seen as a negative, as it may prevent you from providing a quality product or service, and therefore destroying the brand in which you have build up over the years.
Finding a good Mentor, Adviser, would be beneficial to help you to plan for the future, and someone to speak with to help you prepare and grow your business, whether it is a on going relationship with the Mentor/ Adviser or whether it is just for a short time whilst working through this process.
Good Luck with growing your business.
