They say the first year of starting a business is the hardest, but you don’t hear much about how difficult the second, third, and fourth year of business can be. In fact, being in business at all is not easy, so it feels like a miracle to have reached the point when you actually have the funds to grow the business. Expanding your company will be an entirely new challenge, and there will definitely be more than a few growing pains. But once you take a step back and observe how far you’ve come since your first started your business, you won’t be able to help feeling a little pride.
Hire more people
There are several ways you can expand your workforce to create the ultimate team. You could hire a specialised team to help you find the best candidates who are looking for jobs in your sector; law firms, for example, use a retained legal search team to find partners and teams of lawyers that meet theirr criteria, and some companies reach out to recruitment firms to help them narrow down their options. Alternatively, you could select some younger team members by getting a booth at university job fairs to see which graduates would consider joining your company. The best part for you is, they’ll only be expecting entry level positions and salaries, so you can keep your employment costs low. Additionally, you’ll be the one coaching them in your industry, so you could have efficient and enthusiastic workers for a long time to come.
Reach out
No one can start a business entirely on their own, so why should expanding it be any different. Networking is a crucial part of growing your business, because you can gain access to established business owners and their fountain of knowledge, and make some valuable connections who want to invest in your company. They could be new suppliers, a potential merger that could double the size and influence of your company, or a foreign business owner who could help you establish your company abroad. Not to mention that attending networking events and trade shows is a chance to stay on top of industry news. You always have more to learn and there are plenty of people for you to learn from, so always take advantage of these opportunities.
Re-examine your business plan
Even if your core company values will stay the same, expansion gives you the opportunity to re-examine your business plan and see where improvements could be made. Perhaps there have been one too many mistakes in the order and delivery process, or too much human error when adding up the books. You need to make sure these kinds of mistakes never happen again, whether that means hiring a professional accountant to do your finances from now on, or coming up with a more efficient delivery system to send your products to your customers. You probably survived a few mistakes up to this point, so use that experience to make your business even better.