Smart Payroll

Most business owners say “just give me more sales” but the truth is if they doubled the number of customers they currently have every month they would probably get smashed.

They wouldn’t be able to do it and there would be so many complaints and un-happy customers it would actually be really miserable.

It’s important as a business owner to grow in an orderly fashion and use a framework like the 5 easy steps below to help you.

You’re on the right track

If you find your business is going through a period of growth, that’s usually because you’ve done something right! It’s exciting to watch your business grow and develop, however it’s important to remember that everything needs to grow with it.

To avoid hitting some bottlenecks in your business capacity, you will need to go through all the processes and make sure you can handle the increased sales. Things like – staff, office resources (computers, warehouse space, company cars, bigger offices etc) and ensure that suppliers you rely on can increase their workload without compromising on quality.

I’m always amazed when Apple release a new phone and they literally sell millions and millions of phones in the first month and the planning that must involve is pretty amazing.

Organic Growth

If you find your business naturally growing, that’s great! Don’t rush this growth.  By allowing for it to develop organically, you will have time to stop and think about what you’ll need for the future. It may be time to look for business mentors and hire a team of experienced board members. A lot of business owners don’t often consider themselves as the bottleneck!

As the owner, business growth takes you away from the day-to-day running of the company. You may need to think about hiring a General Manager to oversee the daily tasks as you focus more on forward moving strategies without having to worry about how the business is operating.

Hiring an experienced manager to pick up the slack will not only help the businesses growth and reduce your workload, but is also very attractive to investors. Investors want to know the business can run without the owner.  If a GM is in place you will add a lot of money to the value of your business when you come to sell it.

Let your manager do their job

Once you have grown to the point where you require others to help manage the business’s daily operations, it’s tempting to watch over their every move. You have to resist the temptation to circumnavigate them and go directly to your employees or make decisions without their involvement.

It’s a good problem to have: you are no longer have to deal with the day to day issues of the business and you no longer have a direct line with every employee in the company. If you have hired a manager, you need to trust them to do their job. Otherwise you run the risk of losing them and confusing your staff – The days of micro-managing are over. 

Up until now you may have been spreading yourself way too thin, it’s now time concentrate on one aspect of the business and let your manager focus on the other.  I call this “Let Go to Grow”.

All systems go

Managing your growth effectively is all about ensuring the processes you have in place can handle larger quantities of output, and that your systems are easy for new staff to follow. As demand increases, your operations may change slightly from when you were working at a lower scale. 

Your operational systems and processes should be reviewed annually and you should ask your staff for their input. The further you move away from daily operations, the more important it is that you have black and white guidelines for your employees. You need to trust your procedures will scale. 

The way you are operating now may not be productive when demand increases, so you need to think ahead about how you can adapt for growth and know your own business limits. 

No Golden Rule

At the end of the day, there is no Golden Rule for managing growth – there are infinite variables that change on a daily basis. Every business and situation will be different, however, as Louis Pasteur once said “Chance favours the prepared mind”. The best you can do is plan ahead opposed to fighting fires. 

Growth is easy with Payroll 

Whether you are operating with 3 employees or 50, SmartPayroll offers a payroll system that easily integrates with your business, regardless of the phase of growth it is in. Our Payroll Angels are always happy to help answer any queries you may have. We offer full payroll support free of charge and free workshops across Australia. We understand the growing pains for developing a business and have made our payroll systems to make your business run as efficiently as possible. Sign up for a free payroll trial today and if you have any other questions feel free to give us a call.