How to Maintain Healthy Business Growth

Steady and Sustainable Growth

Companies can grow in a few different ways. One thing to look out for is sudden and extreme jumps in demand and rapid growth that follows. While your business is likely to grow unevenly from time to time, this extreme growth can be an issue.

While it seems like a great thing for your company to grow so quickly, this growth is often unsustainable. Let’s say that your business experiences a sudden boost in demand, perhaps because you’ve managed to catch onto the trend at the right time.

This demand might be more than you can supply, so to capitalize on this growth, you might take out a business loan to grow your production line. You hire more people as quickly as possible and you try to sell as many products as possible so you can get a good profit.

But what happens when demand slows down? 

You now have a bloated infrastructure that wasn’t properly planned out. You also have employees that you can’t afford and that might not be that skilled in the first place, not to mention a debt that all of your profits have gone to paying off.

Your business might then implode under its own bloated costs. Or, even if demand does stay high, rushing business decisions to increase supply could lead to different issues further down the line. 

While it is good to take advantage of trends, it’s not a good idea to base your company growth on a trend or sudden boom. Instead, you should make sure that your company's growth is carefully planned. You want steady growth that your business can maintain and keep up with, so if something does go wrong, your company is still flexible enough to pivot and work with it.

Even if there are some jumps in your company, there should be a relatively smooth trend when you look at the big picture. Use opportunities and boosts as just that, a way to more quickly reach the goals that you have already planned out.

A Healthy Cash Flow

On a similar note to healthy growth, you also want to consider the cash flow of your business. Generally, people think that as long as money is coming into the company, things are going well. But ideally, money should also be going out of the business. 

A healthy cash flow isn’t just your profit and income, it’s also the way you use the cash.

To start with, your company might need an injection of funds from a load provider or investors. This is what gets things off the ground and allows your company to make and sell products. But this isn’t when your company should stop spending money.

Good cash flow and money management also comes down to making wise investments in the company itself. Otherwise, the company can’t grow to meet higher demands and make more significant profits.

Always look for opportunities to invest your funds. This might mean talking things over with an accountant or business financial advisor. First, look for issues that your company might have that cost money over time or that restrict your company growth.

This might be poor equipment, an inefficient supply chain, or overworked employees. Look for ways to solve these problems or prevent further issues from cropping up. Next, look for opportunities.

Opportunities are inherently risky, and might need further investment to take full advantage of. You might want to expand your production line, improve your marketing strategy, or even open another branch in a new location. Some of these options will cost more to begin with, but they will earn greater profits in the long run.

On the other hand, if you prefer to hoard your funds, you will find that your company simply doesn’t grow at all. That money isn’t doing anyone any good, let alone your business.

Corporate Events

Speaking of opportunities, how can you find and make these opportunities a reality?

This is where corporate events can be so useful. Market research is partially about learning about your customers, but it’s also about improving your knowledge of the industry as a whole. When you attend corporate events with other companies like expos or trade fairs, you can learn about other companies in your industry.

This can be great for finding out about new opportunities such as new vendors that might be more local than your current ones. These events are fantastic networking opportunities in general, as you meet other people in your industry.

You can also use them as opportunities to find new employees or even new clients, depending on your business. Or you could go into business with another company and work on a project together.

Whether you’re attending a corporate event or hosting one, it’s best to make sure your company puts its best foot forward. This might mean hiring a corporate event production team to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that everyone can see and hear what’s on offer.

Hosting a corporate event is a great way to find new potential clients and investors alike. You can talk about exciting new developments in your industry or your company specifically. You can also use this opportunity to let your employees feel appreciated.

Intelligent Meetings

Everyone knows what a business meeting is, but what do we mean by intelligent meetings? Have you ever heard the phrase “this could have been an email”? 

This is a common phrase in the corporate world used to describe a meeting that simply didn’t need to happen. These meetings waste time and convey exactly the same amount of information that could have been included in an email. Employees typically don’t enjoy these meetings and they can even slow down progress on projects.

Instead, make sure that meetings are planned in advance. It’s good to have an idea about what needs to be communicated and how each person attending the meeting can contribute.

Some meetings are less formal than others and are designed to brainstorm ideas. But even in these meetings, you have a goal at the end of the day. If someone does need to convey certain information, they need to not only have that information readily available, but they also need to think about how they’re going to present it.

Intelligent meetings are vital for planning and project management. They make sure that everything is going smoothly and, if something does go wrong, your company can work through it. Meetings should encourage creativity, good communication, and actionable plans for the future.

Effective Time Management

This leads us nicely into the idea of time management. Pointless meetings are an example of poor time management. Everyone is pulled into a conversation that can go on for hours and doesn’t really go anywhere. All of the work that could have been accomplished on that day doesn’t get done and has to be finished another time.

So, what is effective time management? 

In a world where time is money, using your time and resources wisely is one of the keys to company growth and progression. 

It’s good for everyone to learn how to more effectively manage their time, including employees and students. Whether you work for yourself or run a larger company, make sure that you meet your deadlines. This makes you seem more professional and ensures that you don’t end up procrastinating or wasting time.

Some effective time management tips include using a scheduling system. Simply put, be organized and write everything down. If you have projects or client deadlines, make sure you know when they need to be completed and when you have time to work on them. 

If you have employees, make sure that you organize their schedules in a way that everyone is happy with. Speak to them about their needs and expectations. If you can be more flexible, you will have happier employees who are more productive when they’re working, as they aren’t worrying about the funeral they’re missing or another issue.

Make sure that people get their work schedules in advance, especially if they work rotating shifts that can change from week to week. 

Keep track of the projects on the schedules as well. If one project gets finished sooner or later than you expect, it’s important to be able to work around it and reschedule when needed. Finally, don’t forget about breaks. Time management means scheduling breaks into the workday to allow people to be as rested and therefore as productive as possible.