If you are wanting to start a small business, it is never too early to begin planning for potential growth. As a small business owner you must continually have a big picture perspective. Find out the most important things to know about growing a business in this excerpt from an interview between Dale Beaumont and Matthew Nolan.
Matthew is the founder and managing director of Provident Inventory Finance. As a sought-after business advisor and finance industry commentator, Matthew has regular columns in over a dozen business magazines and newspapers, advising on issues such as cash flow management, business planning and diversification.
What are the most important things for growing a business?
After watching thousands of successful businesses grow, it is clear that there are common keys to their successes.
- Plan for growth – this involves working out how your business can expand and what will be needed to achieve this in terms of resources, such as staff and working capital. Developmental tools, such as a business plan and a budget, can provide a road map for your business’s expansion and are vital for keeping growth ambitions realistic and on track.
- Think laterally about growth options – leave behind statements such as, ‘We don’t do that here’ or ‘We can’t because…’ Business managers and owners frequently set artificial boundaries around their business that bear no resemblance to its true potential. Successful growing businesses focus their thinking on new markets or products, and finding alternative ways to grow their capacity, such as new machinery or accessing alternate sources of working capital.
- Follow plans through – have the tenacity to see a growth strategy through, especially when at first it doesn’t succeed. Sure, it may need some tinkering to achieve success, but it’s important not to give in to the temptation to prematurely scrap a push toward growth altogether.
For more of this interview and what to know about starting a business, check out “Secrets of Top Business Builders Exposed!“
