Helping Your Business Blossom With Fewer Growing Pains

Launching your own business is a dream for so many. It’s a feeling of exhilaration that comes with starting out on your own! The possibilities are endless and the freedom that comes from being your own boss is consuming. As you start to find success, there’s a quiet satisfaction that creeps in from seeing signs that you’re flourishing. From signing your first customers to watching your monthly revenue gain a few zeros, it’s a serious rush.

But like all good things, it’s not always easy. Setbacks happen, customers leave, and growth stalls. These growing pains can feel uncomfortable on the back of quick wins. But scaling a business means overcoming challenges one after the other. It’s really about levelling up your set of problems and trading them in for a better set.

While most business owner tales showcase the highlights reel, there’s a lot of sweat equity happening behind the scenes. From working long hours to wearing too many hats, being a business owner can be exhausting. Nevermind the grind that means manual processes without the right systems in place. Moving beyond survival to enjoyment is the goal in this phase, and figuring out how to scale your business is the secret that will bring you happiness and success.

Here are the most common growing pains and some tips on how to solve them.

1. Time is enemy number one. It feels like there’s never enough time. So you start earlier and finish later just to try to keep up – but it’s rarely enough. While it’s normal for business owners to work longer hours at certain phases, if there’s constantly never enough time in your day, it’s probably time for change.

Adding more humans to your business can feel scary. But when you’re spread too thin, an extra set of hands to handle the daily operations, execution or customer service is just what you need. In fact, this is an investment in yourself and your business since you’ll now have more time to focus on strategic matters, growth, and other high-value activities. 

Investing in people is a critical step towards successfully scaling your business. While not all experts need to be full-time employees, experts come in all shapes and sizes. From consultants to contractors and even casual part-time staff, many hands make light work and buy you back more of your finite time. 

2. Your systems aren’t designed to scale. Pushing paper isn’t the best way to work efficiently. Today there’s a plethora of tools ready to help you grow. But with so many choices, how can you select tech that works well together and will grow with you as your business grows? 

If you choose wisely, these solutions enable better productivity. From automating data entry to capturing customer orders or enabling internal communications, there’s a range of tools to suit everyone. 

However, as your business changes, your needs can evolve too. We recommend reviewing your tech tools at the start of the year to make sure your assistants are giving you the help you need. From your invoicing to your accounting and even scheduling, consider optimising your systems for serious growth. 

3. Your employees are feeling burnt-out. We all love the notion of rise and grind. It embodies the hustle culture that got you here, but don’t forget your team of awesome humans need to recharge their batteries. Especially after busy seasons or growth spurts where the human power hasn’t caught up to business demands. 

Your staff are your biggest asset and usually interact with customers daily. So make sure that your employees aren’t stretched too thin with unreasonable workloads and timeframes. Treat them as the humans they are and work together to build a culture you can all be proud of. 

4. You lost sight of cash flow. You’ve heard it before, but cash will always be king. Cash comes and goes as a natural part of business. Staying on top of the exchange is essential to being able to meet your financial obligations on time without stress. 

This is the value of a good accounting system. It tracks the details of your purchase orders, automates the invoicing, and tracks your incoming and outgoing funds. It can also handle overdue accounts and keep you informed about potential risks, like slow-paying clients. While it might be easy to manage a small book of business, as you grow it can become a tangled mess fast!

The right set-up creates fewer hurdles.

Setting yourself up for success starts with setting up the systems for growth. If you’re not sure if your systems are ready to handle serious growth in 2023, drop us a line. We offer solid business advice backed by financial finesse – from one business owner to another, and we do it jargon-free.

So drop us a line to book a call with me, Christian, and let’s get started. 2023 is waiting for you and together we can make more possible.