Small Business News: Is Your Business Ready For Growth?
Is your small business ready for growth? It may be a good time for entrepreneurs to be asking the question as government projections become more optimistic about both the growth of the economy and growth of the job market. We’ve prepared this roundup just for you. Read on.
Getting Ready
Could growth be on the horizon? The fed has raised projections for the growth of the economy this year. The projection comes with a lower than expected unemployment rate for 2011, signs of a faster than expected growth for the economy. How will this impact your business and are your ready? NYTimes.com
How to grow your staff to meet demand. As your business grows, of course, so will your need to bring in more people to get stuff done. But the kind of staff you bring in and how they perform will also have a great impact potentially on how much more your business can grow. If you want to do it right, check out Mairead Kelly’s outline for staffing success. Tweak Your Biz
Growth Lessons
Always be ready for sudden spurts. Growing too fast can come with it’s own set of problems. Take this story of a visionary entrepreneur who found himself on the outside looking in at the company he created. Some entrepreneurs dream of overnight success. The savvy ones are aware of the dangers that can result. Montreal Financial
An overview of the growth process. In another post from her series, Mairead Kelly takes an overview of the whole process of business growth. We look at the necessity, obstacles and planning involved in moving your business forward and consider the key elements involved in growth. Tweak Your Biz
Strategies
Four ways to increase your business. The four ways to increase your business are NOT rocket science but they ARE something you may want to have stuck to your refrigerator so that you can look at them every morning. So fortunate than that Steve Miller has created a nice short and compact post suitable for framing. 
Two Hat Market
Overcoming the obstacles in your way. Sometimes growth requires more than just expanding your current operation. Often itcan include overcoming obstacles that stand in your own or your company’s way. These obstacles can be difficult to overcome at times and can come in several varieties. Though S. Anthony Iannarino is talking about obstacles to the growth of your sales team here, clearly the same advice can go for your whole business too. Future Selling Institute
Start-up
Start-up and growth is tied to your funds. It doesn’t much matter whether you’re a venture funded start-up or a small mom and pop struggling through the early days of your business. The fact is that the amount of money you have on hand in your business equals the amount of time you have to grow to true profitability. Think about how to stretch your funds and you increase your chances for success. Startup Professionals Musings
Social Media
Blogging and social media for growth. An obvious tool for growing small business, no matter what the market, is with blogging and social media. Yes, it’s talked about often enough in small business circles these days, but make now mistake, blogs and social media are great ways to grow at a low cost. Construction Marketing UK Blog
Don’t miss the simplest opportunities. Sometimes the greatest opportunities to grow our businesses are right under our noses all the time. How about the simple opportunities presented to just about every bricks and mortar business with check-in social media like Foursquare. If you have a business, you probably already have a business site. And if you have not already claimed that space or if someone else has, it is another opportunity wasted. E-Marketing Associates
Operations
How to grow even in bad times. Surprisingly one of the key strategies to growth even during economic hard times like the recent recession may have little or nothing to do with marketing. Want to know if the rate of turnover and the amount of teamwork that happens in your company can impact the bottom line. Look no further. A new strategy for business management has arrived.Winning Workplaces
Founder of Strategic Sales & Marketing
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Growing a business from a small one to large is fraught with difficulty, I know I have tried and failed so sold up instead, twice. The main problem for me was lack of systems in the business. When you can see for yourself everything that is going on, or not, it is easy to feel in control but a big business removes that feeling and has to be replaced by systems which you can then monitor or have monitored. That is where I fell down, the staff I had already were happy where they were, no one wanted much more and at this point I should have employed others to take over from me. Not sure now why that didn’t occur but it didn’t and I sold. Just might help someone contemplating a surge – get help.
As a partner of a recent start-up website, I found portions of this post to be very informative. The links that I found the most useful are the ones that discuss social networking and “to blog or not to blog.” Thanks for the information.
No doubt, this is a great question to ask! Are small businesses ready for growth? Another question to consider is this, are they just trying to survive? Either way, it is important that small business owners know what they are up against and knowing what resources are available to assist them is important.
Thanks for putting this information out there as it is vital to helping small business owners get ahead.
I know perfectly well that I’m not cut out to run a business, not even as part of a team but I’ve been part of a few young companies that were growing quite quickly. The company I’m working for at the moment has doubled in size since I started and continuing to grow. You don’t get the impression that things are out of control though, which is good.
Obviously, things have changed quite a bit. New procedures have had to be put in place, ERP software instead of doing the accounts on spreadsheet and that kind of thing.
Don’t get me wrong, the small business feeling is nice but eventually, you do have to let go of that. Apart from anything, I don’t want to be out of a job.