Growing Your Business

Michael Harrison

Growing your business

Starting a business can be difficult – making it grow can be a problem.

In the first year you will be getting on with the business of business. Keeping your head down, controlling cash, meeting targets, winning and keeping customers with brilliant customer service.

In the second year, you’ll hopefully want to come up for air and take stock of the situation. You may well want to re-visit your business plan, assess your trading progress, customer base and consider the future as you see it.

You will want to be thinking and starting to plan how your business will grow. This is the start of developing a long term strategy for your business and you will need to re-visit and adjust this plan many times as your business develops.

At this point you may consider external support would help in giving objectivity to your deliberations. Don’t make the clichéd mistake of not considering support from a suitably experienced consultant. Contrary to some narrow minded opinions a good consultant can be most helpful.

I know this from personal experience where my ‘self confidence’ made me want to ‘go it alone’ more than once. We all benefit from independent support from time to time. The knack is knowing when you need it.

Back to the topic. So how do you plan for growth?

A good SWOT analysis is invaluable. This is where you benchmark your business against others in your sector and assess, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

As you do this you will see areas of your operations which may need your attention and changing while you will also identify opportunities which will need action.

So from your SWOT you can develop your action plan. Even if you are a one man business this is a process which should be part of the ongoing development of your business.

You must make reviewing the performance of your business a regular activity. It is all too easy to become comfortable when things are going well. Meanwhile the market and the competition are changing and you could be losing out. Develop a mind set which does not accept that things cannot be improved. Avoid Business As Usual.

Even in the very best run businesses there is always something which can be done to improve performance. Revisit your business plan; work out how to capitalise on your current position.

Assess risk. Are you exposed to single customer? See Bulletin 011 for more on this.http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/byobe_bulletin_-backissues.html

Do other businesses operating in your market do better than you? Could you improve your profitability through changed operating procedures and organisation?

As your business develops you will need to consider your training needs, personal and those of your staff. Your main objective is to work on the business not in it.

This means progressively developing your growth strategy so that as the business owner you are concerned with the future of the business. Too many work in the business not on it.

Working on the business is a sure way of growing your business.

Tip To change and improve are two different things.

*********************************************************************
Resource Box:
Article by Michael Harrison, Author, Publisher and Business Consultant. Learn from an expert: Go to: http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/
Subscribe for your Free weekly newsletter. Information for career and business minded people. Subscribe today http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/Bulletin.html Access our archives when you subscribe.
*********************************************************************
**Attn: Ezine Editors / Site Owners / Webmasters / everyone**
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include our resource box as listed above.
You can use other articles similarly from http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/Articles.html
OR subscribe to our FREE newsletter issued weekly. Each issue is packed with motivational, business and personal development material. Subscribe now at http://www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/Bulletin.html
When you subscribe you will access our archives – no matter what your interest/specialisation there will be information there to help you.
Subscribe today to receive the very next issue of ‘byobe Bulletin’ – Do you get it?

About the Author

Michael Harrison is an author, publisher and business consultant specialising in helping business owners and individuals to realise and release the full potential of their situation. He has helped many people to improve their business situations and advised and supported individuals to embark on new directions in their careers