Growing one’s business is an exciting and rewarding endeavor, but only when done at the right time for it to be a smart and sustainable move. Too soon and you risk stretching your company too thin; too late and you might miss the opportunity. Whether you’re considering expanding your team, entering a new market, or adding to your existing products or services, growth is not a decision to take lately as it can highly influence the future success of your company.
Here are five signs that it’s time for you to grow your business in the best way you see fit.
You have to turn down quality work.
One of the very first signs it’s time to grow is that you have to turn away potentially great clients simply because you don’t have the bandwidth to accommodate another account. If you find yourself in this position often, it may be time to consider hiring new team members.
You need an extra hour in the day—every day.
Even if you’ve got time management down to an art, too much work can still leave you feeling drained and overwhelmed. If you’re working each day from dawn to dusk, it’s high time you hire some support or implement a new system that can help to streamline your operations.
You absolutely hate doing (insert task).
If you hate doing something, it’s going to be a waste of your time. Why not find someone else who can fill that role and let you reclaim that time and mental space for other projects? Don’t feel like you need to be on Instagram every hour if you can’t stand social media; find an intern, part-time employee, or contractor who can pick up the responsibility.
Your clients are asking for more than you offer.
Consider how often you field inquiries and requests for products or services that you don’t offer. If the answer is ‘very often,’ your clients might be onto something. Use that feedback to consider expanding your offerings, but be sure that it aligns with your existing products or services. For example, a photographer may consider including professional photo albums as an add-on to their service package or, perhaps, a florist will get into linen rentals to create perfectly curated tablescapes.
Your business is systematically and financially sound.
This is the most important factor of them all. If any of the signs above resonated, it’s probably a good time to consider growing your business — but only if your company is in a good place structurally and financially. Trying to grow while navigating money problems is a dangerous game, just as it would be to expand on top of a disorganized foundation with no rhyme or reason. You need to have the systems in place already so that they can grow with you, not cause additional problems.
If you checked off all these boxes, your next step is to consider how you want to grow and what you need to get the ball rolling. If you’re not quite ready, that’s fine — it’s important to understand that, even if now isn’t the right time, you can always work towards it. Use these signs as benchmarks to aim for; for example, if you’re ready in nearly every way but don’t have your systems in place, get to work on that so you can reach your goals as soon as possible.
Jennifer Taylor is the principal of Jen Taylor Consulting, a consulting firm that works with creative businesses of all sizes to implement streamlined workflows and organized systems to find more time and space for business growth and personal development. She is also the owner and founder of Taylor’d Event Group, a leading event planning company that serves local and destination clients in Washington State and Maui, HI.