Okay, forget all this organic growth stuff. Let's say you
hit the big time, and suddenly dozens, hundreds, even
thousands of people are flooding towards your business.
Exciting, isn't it? Sure, exciting as a funeral.
If your business isn't ready, this could be The End.
It's easy to want to hit it big. But, the truth is, rapid
expansion is the most dangerous time for any business.
Am I against you succeeding? No way. I want you to flourish
and thrive and enjoy your business. But, I don't want you
to get flooded out.
Why rapid growth is so dangerous.
When you grow, everything grows. I mean EVERYTHING. Your
income grows, and so do the number of requests for help.
Your database grows, and so do the number of number of
complaints and negative feedback. The number of orders
grow, and the number of mistakes you make grows, too.
Dealing with 1000 orders is very different than dealing
with 10. Dealing with 20 clients is very different than
dealing with 5.
A true story.
Once upon a time there was someone who was excellent at
what she did. Excellent. And, naturally, the word spread.
What's more, she accelerated her growth through really
smart marketing. As has happened to many people, she even
received so much traffic to her website that her servers
were overwhelmed at one point.
Very cool, eh?
Then things started to go south.
Instead of answering emails cheerfully within a day, it was
taking her two or three weeks to get back to people, simply
because of the volume. She had more clients than she could
handle, and they started to complain about her mistakes to
each other, to people they knew, to everyone but her.
Plus, there were hundreds of requests for services,
requests she couldn't fill, because it was just her.
And people started to drift away...
Do you see where this is going?
It IS possible to turn a situation like this around. But,
it will definitely take some real effort, and a new track
record, to get the good opinion of the marketplace back
again.
What's going on here spiritually? Well, it's kind of like
the old "hand in the cookie jar" story. You put your hand
in the cookie jar, grab a bunch of cookies, but then your
fist with all the cookies is too big for the neck of the
jar. So, you have to let go of all the cookies save one, in
order to get your hand out.
It's about trusting that you'll have what you need. When
something seems too big to be true, it probably is. My
experience is that the next right step always is something
that feels real and grounded to me.
So are big jumps never permissible? When is it okay to blow
the lid off and really 'go for it'? Is there a way to grow
rapidly, without risking your business?
Sure there is. Let's take a look.
Keys to Safe and Rapid Growth
- Systems, systems, systems.
Because you care about your business so much, plus you're
probably really creative, you've most likely resisted
implementing systems in your business, wanting to make sure
that loving care is put into every detail.
For growth, you'll want to start to identify where things
are repetitive, and where the loving care can be put into a
system that handles repetitive tasks. No, don't put any
less love and care into it. Just start to think about what
details aren't hurt when they are systematized.
The best time to do this is before you really need to. It
helps to make sure that you have the time to put love into
creating a system, instead of doing it in a panic with 100
upset customers breathing down your back.
- Practice being the boss.
You can't do everything. A one-person successful business
is a myth: every successful business requires the efforts
of more than one person. And so you need to learn how to
delegate, outsource, and hire the people to help you,
without breaking the bank.
This takes practice. Start practicing in small ways, hiring
a virtual assistant for a few hours a month, just to get
used to the idea. As you gain more experience, you'll be
able to outsource more and more. And, eventually you'll be
comfortable hiring and allowing others to help you when you
start to grow.
- You need a product.
When you have thousands of people wanting help from you,
the only sensible thing you can provide is a product. If
you're a service business, or even if you are creating
things, but doing it in an old-fashioned, loving
hand-crafted way, you'll want to start to think "scalable."
What kind of a product can you experiment with creating?
Your first one probably won't be a home run, so if you
start creating your first information products now, you'll
get the hang of what your clients really want and need.
You may never want to grow to be really big. But, even if
you want to be moderately comfortable, these three steps:
systems, hiring help, and having products, are the
foundational pieces you need in order to handle rapid
growth.
Because it can happen. And instead of a prelude to your
business' funeral, it can be the joyous celebration it
should be.
----------------------------------------------------
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your
Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your
Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line.
He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the
globe succeed in business without lousing their hearts. Get
three free chapters of the book online:
http://www.heartofbusiness.com
No comments:
Post a Comment