Business growth is a difficult beast. Grow too quickly, and your company could tear apart at the seams. Grow too slowly, and your competitors are likely to eat your lunch.
Managing your company’s growth takes careful planning and execution. Here’s how to make sure your company is not just growing, but growing sustainably:
1. Set Growth Objectives
There are many ways to measure growth. Defining your goals will steer your efforts toward the types that matter to you. Without clear objectives, you may grow in some areas, like your customer base, without growing in those that actually matter to you.
Common metrics around which leaders set growth goals include:
- Monthly recurring revenue
- Gross margin
- Premium accounts or upsells
- Customer lifetime value
- Total number of accounts
Once you’ve set one or more objectives, set a timeline to achieve them. Chasing after “somedays” won’t get you results. Use milestones to determine whether you’re on track.
Also take into account what it will take to meet your objectives. Consider the capital, workforce, and hours needed to get to where you want to go. In your timelines, factor in the time required to hire, get a loan or otherwise create a foundation for growth.
2. Tighten Your Hiring Process
Organizations do not grow by themselves. The people within your company will be responsible for its growth.
Hiring the right employees is part and parcel of growing sustainably. Especially at a startup, you can’t afford slackers. But you also need to be careful of people who live by Facebook’s famous “Move fast and break things” motto.
Here, cultural fit is key. Hire workers who are bad fits, and you’ll see a lot of turnover that slows down growth. Look for those who see your vision. Make sure they’re willing to put in the work to build processes and have the maturity to move past mistakes.
If rapid growth leaves too much on your plate, one way to meet the demand is outsourcing. This form of delegation doesn’t require you to hire new employees, which takes time, while still ensuring work gets done.
3. Stick to a Budget
Spending and saving are key parts to managing business growth. Spending promotes growth by acquiring the supplies you need to develop and manufacture your product.
Saving does not produce immediate growth, but it helps you play the long game. Investing in new service lines, workspaces and technologies can catapult you ahead of your competitors.
This is all about balance. Your business needs a budget to prioritize its spending while socking some away each month. Otherwise, you’ll be tempted to overspend—which may produce short-term growth, but will ultimately make your organization more fragile.
Business debt should be a pivotal part of your budget as well. Most entrepreneurs cannot afford to self-fund. Beware, though, that taking on too much debt can cause you to miss out on growth opportunities and overpay on interest.
4. Concentrate Your Efforts
The reality is, you cannot focus on every area of your business at once. You may see needs everywhere, but you won’t make a meaningful impact if you can’t prioritize your time.
Look back to your objectives. If revenue is how you’re measuring your growth, this might be the quarter to optimize your sales team. If customer lifetime value is the metric that matters most to you, your customer service team might need a little extra training.
5. Adapt Again and Again
With growth comes growing pains. Make sure not just you, but your employees, are ready to roll with the punches.
Growing client loads can stress out the account team. Retention initiatives can cause you to keep unprofitable customers. Increased web traffic calls for more servers. Larger order volumes may strain smaller suppliers.
Infrastructure comes in many forms, all of which can break. Listen to employees’ concerns before cracks in a process or system turn into a catastrophe. Eagerly adopt new technologies that can lessen the burden on your team.
6. Take Care of Customers
Growth cannot occur without paying customers. No matter how many partnerships you forge or products you build, you won’t get anywhere without a sizable customer base.
Give your customers your ear. Their insights can help you improve your product, root out customer service issues, and even identify new customer demographics. And by implementing their feedback, you’ll engender their loyalty.
Every entrepreneur wants to see their company grow, but few have the patience to grow well. In the business world, slow and steady often wins the race.
John Hall is the co-founder and president of Calendar, a scheduling and time management app. You can book him as a keynote speaker here and you can check out his best-selling book “Top of Mind.” Sign up for Calendar here.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.
