What's holding your business back? 4 top tips for embracing business growth

Why do some SMEs power ahead, enjoying growth year on year, while others with the same opportunities lag behind or even stagnate? While market conditions and sector can have an impact, growth usually means increased complexity and inevitably, a need to evolve.

But change can be overwhelming for many business owners and often stops potential in its tracks. For those businesses really committed to sustained growth, tackling four core areas can help overcome the fear and worry that often prevents talented business owners taking the next bold step.

1.  You – the founder will need to change

One of the biggest barriers to growth is the capability of the owner. It’s tough to face the fact you can no longer do or know everything. Learning how to delegate, to trust your team and investing in your own development are vital foundations to put in place so that you can successfully take your business to the next level.

2.  Poor team – poor performance

A business cannot grow successfully without talented and high performing people supporting the strategy and focused on business growth. If you are serious about growth, it’s never too early to invest in talent that you can nurture and ultimately trust to run your business.

With a strong team in place, you as owner can focus on leadership, strategy and the next growth plan.

3.  Sales and structure

Once you have stepped back and have a strong team in place, you need to be able to scale your sales operation.

This isn’t just about selling more product or finding new customers, but about building a structure that enables you to duplicate and scale your activity. It’s about having the right sales team, technology and rewards.

4.  Systems and processes

Keeping the same systems and processes you had when you first started out will not sustain your business through continued growth. Cloud technology with its pay-as-you-go model offers SMEs flexibly, scalability and access to state of the art systems that have previously been beyond reach. Making sure you exploit the opportunities digitisation offers is critical to managing growth effectively. Profit can take time to materialise in any business.

So it is important to ensure you are identifying barriers to growth and putting in place documented achievable plans to tackle them to avoid your growth potential being limited. To find out what other business owners think about growth, leadership and building their teams here.  

Talk to one of our Slough business advisers about your business plan and how to ensure it positions you for growth.