Need for Speed? Not So Fast

Published on July 5, 2017 |

Happy customers, a robust sales pipeline, and rapid corporate expansion—what’s bad about your business’ speedy growth? As you celebrate successes, remember that slow and steady often wins the race.

According to Entrepreneur, an organization can find their perfect rate of growth without decreasing quality—an idea known as optimal enterprise velocity. This rate can help businesses assess growth and determine if the growth is helpful or detrimental to the overall company. In fact, many financial experts agree that building a strong foundation and then focusing on slow but steady growth is the best philosophy.

• Consider these questions to help assess your company’s growth:
• Is this growth sustainable for the long term?
• Can the supply chain support this growth?
• How is the company culture?
• Do we have enough cash flow to support this rate of growth?

If you take the time to slow down unnecessarily quick growth, your team can breathe and assess what has been happening. If the answers to the above questions are unsatisfying, purposefully slowing growth creates the opportunity to make the needed changes to sustain your business.

Beat the Burnout

Growing too quickly to meet an unrealistic demand could cause undue stress on your cash flow and your team. Avoid employee burnout from the beginning and focus on hiring team members with the right personalities, work ethics and fit for your company. Bringing additional people to your team does mean you will reassign profit to your payroll, but the investment in the right people pays off. Continue to support your current employees with reviews and performance incentives where needed.

Future Perfect

After assessing the growth and deciding to increase or decrease based on your business, it’s time to plan for the future. Notice your company’s selling points, and build on those aspects of your business. Capitalize on new technologies to gain an edge on your competitors, but don’t go all-in on something new. Business News Daily suggests being careful about avoiding trends in the marketplace, instead focusing on how to stay relevant without investing in something that will be out of style tomorrow. Thinking long term about where your business will be in one, five, and 10 years can help you plan for the best financial future possible.