Coping with Growth

You might have seen our recent LinkedIn video conversation with Rebecca Wilson where we talked about what it’s like to be a small business that’s growing.

In lots of ways, you’re a victim of your own success. Growth is exactly what you wanted, but now that it’s happening, you’re starting to feel a little out of control.

Here’s a little snippet of the conversation that shows how normal this process is...

Clare: It’s as a business is changing and growing that it’s creaking a bit. It’s almost like they’ve got their mud bricks all lined up but they want to build a new wall and they haven’t got enough bricks. Most of those that we deal with are just not quite sure where to start because it is typically a combination of people and the way they work and their operations and their processes and maybe their data and their technology. It’s a little bit of everything so it’s very hard for them to actually, from the middle of it, work out which bit needs... well, it’s not even fixing really. It’s tweaking or optimising, and that first bit, I think that’s probably the same for both of us, that detective work or investigation, discovery of what is actually wrong or what needs improving.

Rebecca: A lot of people feel apprehensive of operations. Why is my business a bit messy? But actually often you’re a victim of your own success. When you start your business, it’s just you perhaps and you know all the information inside your own head. You know the best way to do things and then things change. You get more customers, you hire some more people, you need to become more efficient and so of course you go through this messy stage of what’s the best way to organise things? If you are a victim of your own success, you don’t have enough time to tidy up.

All businesses have to go through this messy stage in order to grow and transform. People don’t talk about it but you’re not alone. If you’re struggling to get things tidied up, why not book in a call here to see if we can help?