I came across a quote by business mentor and author Michael Gerber recently – “If your business can’t run without you – if you can’t safely leave your business for a few weeks – you don’t really have a business; you have a job – with overheads!”
Michael’s words should resonate with any business owner. For a business to be successful, it has to grow, strengthen, be resilient, and expand in terms of both employees and clients. I shared my thoughts on Michael’s words and why businesses need to be resilient in an earlier blog (Is your business bulletproof?). But how do we actually achieve this?
In the second part of a new blog series, I want to share my experiences on the challenges of growing a business. I’ll also be giving you some tips for growth that I’ve learned from running my own business. If you want to read the first part of the series, which covers teams and employees, check out Part one: Expanding your team.
The challenges of growing a business
Taking your business to the next level isn’t a simple process and there’s a big difference between a business that provides enough work for you and one that can support a wider team. Here are some of the challenges that you may face when scaling a business.
- Keeping going. Growing a business is hard. It takes a lot of time, effort, patience and determination. Many of us start businesses with the idea that we’ll have more flexibility and freedom. Whilst that may come further down the line, in the early days, you’ll likely find yourself working harder than ever. There are rewards for pushing through, but when you’re working on your business it’s often a challenging process.
- Business growth changes things. When you grow a business, you open it up to new risks, new challenges and additional requirements. Growth can lead to crossing thresholds for VAT registration, having more demands on your time and needing to employ more people to handle the additional responsibilities e.g. a finance director or a marketing team. In many ways, these are positive milestones – but it’s important to consider if this is what you really want for your business and yourself.
- Finding the work. Ultimately, business growth requires finding more work for you and your team. One of the challenges of growing a business is making time to get new leads and convert them to paying clients.
Top tips for growing a business
Whilst growing a business isn’t easy, there are some steps you can take to make the process more manageable. Here are my top tips for business growth.
- Accept it will take time.
Be realistic about the journey ahead of you. Prepare to work hard and for things to take longer than expected.
- Network and engage
Networking is critical to business growth. However skilled you are, there will be things you can learn from others, contacts that will help you in areas that are new to you, and opportunities for collaboration and business development. I find virtual and in-person networking to be equally valuable and there is plenty you can do via social media.
- Arrange 1-2-1s and seek referrals.
Building on my previous point; capitalise on personal relationships. Getting an existing client or mutual contact to refer you to a new client is one of the best ways of finding work.
- Service a niche…but don’t get too narrow.
Operating within a niche is a great way of establishing yourself in the marketplace. If you can demonstrate specific industry knowledge and expertise, you can gain client trust and command a higher price. However, don’t over-niche to the point where you’re excluding potential customers.
I developed the legal industry as my niche. However, once I was established, I expanded to include property, finance and medical. These industries operate on similar professional standards and many of our skills easily transfer across.
- Become an expert.
In many ways, this is about diving even deeper into your niche. If you can demonstrate knowledge beyond the majority of your competitors, you can position yourself as an expert. For a couple of years now I’ve been a Clio affiliate. Clio is an industry-leading legal CRM and I’ve been able to use my expertise with it to introduce new law firms to Clio. This has led to being able to provide specialist packages using Clio for onboarding new clients.
- Always remember your goals.
Finally, it’s important to never lose sight of why you want to grow your business. You may be motivated by family and wanting to spend more time with loved ones, or professional drive and wanting to achieve a specific business goal or there may be financial reasons for wanting to grow your business. Whatever your reasons, hold on to them when things feel challenging.
Support to grow your business and team
Growing a business isn’t easy, but the rewards are great. When you can look at your business and know you’ve taken it from an initial idea to a thriving company, you know you’ve created something special.
Growing a business isn’t something you have to do on your own either. We can work with you, supporting you with admin, business support, communications and organisation. In short, we can provide the essential skills and services you need to expand and grow.
Let us join you on your journey to bigger and better things. To find out more, arrange a call with us today.
