Blog

What's Halting your Business Growth?02 Mar 2016

No business will grow on its own.
It may sometimes seem that all in your team are working long hours, therefore the business must be headed in the right direction and continue to develop. But it takes no business genius to know, that it's not how many hours you put in, but what you're focused on, that makes the difference between a prosperous enterprise and a failing one. Let's look at some of the key causes why things not going quite the way you'd want them to.

Paused development

You feel that your product is already so good that it can never get any better but no, there are ALWAYS things that need doing to deliver an even better creation. Development and upgrades do not stop.

Too much hands-on management

There is an easy mistake many an entrepreneur makes, that is believing that when they engage in solving daily, urgent problems, they tend to business growth. The truth is - even though an ongoing problem might have been put to bed, the business has not started to grow because of this. They key is to have people responsible for dealing with crisis, so that you can concentrate on the long term development plans.

Not looking at the bigger picture

Managing daily operations ties closely to making a change in perceiving your role in the company - it's crucial to know when to shift from an owner to a leader, or if this is not ideal for you, often remaining an owner and hiring an executive leader might be the way to go. Tough to do, but sometimes the best solution. In those cases, it's good to have this option considered well ahead of time, so that you can "train" the successor yourself. This is often the ideal compromise.

Bad hiring

This is an aspect of business development that needs careful consideration. Don't hire, unless you have to, and when you do, spend as much time as possible on matching the candidate to your specific job requirements as well as office culture.

Inability to delegate work

Since it's your business, you think you know what's best for it and how to get it done. If this thinking never changes, you, as a leader, will never be able to oversee all the decisions made within the company yourself, which in turn, will lead to a serious pause to the overall business development.
There needs to be a certain amount of trust between you and the team you've hired, in order for you to truly delegate the busy work so that you can focus on the bigger picture.

Wrong growth management

As with any powerful force, a sudden, significant business growth requires management and control - if this is not taken care of, the very lack of keeping ties on what is aready happening with regards to growth can cause havoc and disinformation, which will in turn lead to disruption of further development. Ironic?

Cash flow issues

This is a standard problem for small and medium companies, with having to decide between how to invest the money, when to borrow and when to sit quietly. Most business growth strategies require investment, so shying away from spending, just to keep a positive balance can be murder to growth. Making these decisions is hard, but when made right at the right time, are in themselves able to make companies grow wildly.

As difficult as it is, any business needs a growth / development plan, there is no questions about it. If you're not prepared to make decisive steps to direct it, make sure that there is someone else in place to take the necessary steps.