Are you ready to take your business from start-up to industry giant?
When going through a high-growth phase, you face unique challenges including, more employees to manage, new customer demographics, and a lot of pressure to succeed. Your business is expanding and stretching which reveals gaps in both process and product or service quality. There are many ways to close these gaps, and over two decades in the software industry taught us that having a guide to lead you is invaluable and even necessary.
The first challenge is to find the right expert that will get you where you need to go. Guides can be consultants, outsourced resources, or even professional mentors. Whatever type of guide you choose, know that you are ultimately in control of the outcome. You have to decide which path will take you where you need to go.
This article focuses on four areas that are commonly affected during high growth phases: finance, personnel, innovation, and technology.
The Financial Guide
When your business is scaling and growing, you are producing more than ever before. Greater need requires a greater investment. You may need to increase your capacity, manage new revenue streams, and plan for a more robust financial future.
An effective financial guide will:
Act as an authority to lead you safely to your financial goal
Help you create and keep those goals
Treat your business’s ROI as a priority, even during stressful situations
The Personnel Guide
Employees, investors, vendors, and other stakeholders can either make or break you while growing your business. Your employees might not have the right skills or training required to keep up with increased production. You might need to hire more employees, phase out certain stakeholders and/or vendors, or create new positions within the company.
An effective personnel guide will:
Be a resource for new employees
Connect departments and act as a go-between
Manage roadblocks with third-parties
The Innovation Guide
Many companies become stagnant in their growth cycle when they can’t seem to make sales or bring in customers. An innovation guide may be the key to moving your business forward and tapping into the expertise of an industry leader. Effective innovation comes from having solid, relevant, and actionable goals for your company’s future. You can find the right consultant to get you there.
An effective innovation guide will:
Create actionable plans aligned with long-term goals
Use best practices for customer-centered innovation
keep business grounded as it rises in value
Utilize modern technology solutions to get you where you need to go
The Technical Guide
Take stock of your business’s technical needs, goals, and capacity to know how and when to bring in technology-specific guides. These guides can steer your company in a variety of directions, including toward innovative solutions to software or technology problems. You can then use innovative technology solutions to maximize your team’s time, energy, and money
An effective technical guide will:
Research your current system to diagnose problem areas that are hindering your company
Provide tech teams with innovative solutions
Recommend and implement software solutions that solve problems, improve performance, and add value to your company
The right guide will leverage the technology investments you have already made to the fullest extent possible and combine them with the right modern tech to conquer new challenges and scale your success. More than that, the right guide will be a partner in many areas of your business who can help you have the tools you need to grow and thrive in any industry.
