While one of the key goals of most businesses is to grow, some businesses in our interconnected world can grow too rapidly.
It is possible to grow so quickly that your reach exceeds your grasp, which can lead to a number of serious issues. To grow steadily and effectively, you need to monitor key areas of your business that can get out of control during periods of speedy growth. You need to effectively leverage technology so that growth can be achieved without adding costly resources. You also need to be able to monitor this growth.
Infrastructure
Quality infrastructure is a key part of a successful business. It can also become a problem during periods of rapid growth. As your business expands, your infrastructure will become more and more stretched. New territories or business opportunities can mean more locations and an expanded infrastructure. If you’re not prepared for this expansion or you don’t have a clear integration strategy for these new sites, everything slows down. The locations that were spawned by your success become drags reducing profits.
Staffing
The most eye-catching side effect of growth is the swell in your staff. If you are like many rapidly growing businesses you may attempt to meet increases in demand with more employees. While this may be an answer for your business, more employees mean added costs, and not just extra salaries. New staff need training, extra facilities and management. When you do grow, it’s not as simple as adding extra employees to meet new client demands. You need to have an effective, all-round strategy to manage staff additions.
Costs
It’s not just staff costs that go up in periods of growth. You’ll likely be operating more projects, using more materials and broadening your organization’s scope. You will see costs rise across the business as a result. That rise in cost needs to be managed effectively and accurately balanced against increased revenue and business. The only way to properly manage that balance is to get an overall view of your business’ finances and growth plan.
ERP Software Solutions
To get a broad view of your growth, you require data from all across the organization and the ability to regularly review that data in one place. ERP software solutions can provide that ability and go some way to solving the other issues that come with growing your business. ERP software solutions allow you to share data and systems between departments, allowing for better communication. These features allow you to save time and money on projects and improve the efficiency of your existing staff.
Growing your business is a positive step for any organization. But the speed of that growth has to be properly managed. Luckily ERP software solutions are here to help.
