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- September 10, 2019
Business Growth: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Every entrepreneur rejoices at the prospect of business growth. For many, it’s a priority objective in the business strategy. Without growth, there can be no stability or sustainability. Therefore, it can appear as a shock for small business owners and startups when growth comes flying their way, transforming their processes, their prospects, and their overall strategy. Instead of the excitement that should accompany the positive evolution, growth is met with fear, confusion, and distrust.
Help, the Business Is Growing. What Are We Supposed to Do?
Indeed, when a business levels up, it needs to be prepared to manage its new position on the market. Picture growth as a ball that has been thrown in your direction. You’ve been wanting to catch the ball during the entire game. However, it’s happening so suddenly that you are not sure your reflexes will be able to save the day. There are three possible solutions. Firstly, you could catch the ball and throw it back to score full points. Secondly, you could catch the ball, but you’re unable to maintain the momentum of the game. And thirdly, you don’t catch the ball. It hits you in the face, and you’re rushed to the sickroom. Growth can have three different effects on business, a positive one, a negative one, and a destructive one.
The Good: You Can Consider Proactive Merger Investments
The most exciting thing that can happen when it comes to growing your business is to reach a point where you can sustain acquiring and merging with another company. Indeed, a merger lets you gain access to a broad target audience, maximizing your growth prospects. The acquisition of a new business can be the result of lengthy negotiations or a dedicated service such as this insurance agency for sale specialist that also provides M&A tips and financial support. While not all mergers are successful, the strategic acquisition of a business that offers further development opportunities can give your growth all the boost it needs.
The Bad: You’re Unprepared and Dilute Your Culture
Your business is not prepared to handle growth effectively. While you cover your progress with new hirings, your company culture is lost in the process. Indeed, failure to integrate new members of the team to the business can gradually affect your vision, performance, and unique voice. As you grow your team, you also lose your personality. Without the unique spark that differentiates your brand from others, your business is likely to struggle to maintain its market position.
The Ugly: It Is the Beginning of the End
There is so much to do to keep up with the requirements of growth that you might find yourself rapidly losing some of your most valuable business relationships. Indeed, when you’re running out of time, you focus on the essential day-to-day tasks, aka surviving the growth. However, if you can’t maintain your business connections, let alone build new ones. As a result, you can lose your network.
Business growth doesn’t have to be the end of your company. But it can be a challenging period if you are experiencing it as a reactive spectator. Instead, you need to be proactive at driving it to ensure that growth boosts your profits.
This article kind of gives a quick overview and doesn’t really prepare you as a business owner for what you will run into when it comes to issues with growth.
But it does give you a look at the aspects of growth. We all think that growth is always good but if you don’t know how to handle it, it might not be that good of a thing to deal with, you know?
I find myself somewhere in the middle. Sure, there is an overview as to what happens with all aspects of the growth process but there are not very solid examples to go off of. Having examples of scenarios where a business struggled or thrived with growth would be helpful.
Your business is up to you. No amount of examples is gonna prepare you for what happens with YOUR business like running it yourself.