Entrepreneurship is very popular among Millennials right now. They understand the benefits of owning your own company, building wealth and being able to pass down something to the next generation. As a result, they are starting businesses as solo entrepreneurs. Some of them are developing partnerships. However, it’s important to consider where you want your company to be ten and twenty years down the road. This is why forecasting and preparation are such important components to consider. Most businesses fail within the first 5 years. Oftentimes, this is due to a lack of planning, funding or support. Truthfully, there are so many ways to avoid a failed business. The key is to remain intentional about the educational process. When you can soak up information and learn as much as you can through the process, you have a better chance of sustaining a successful enterprise. There are three different pillars to consider when you are forecasting and preparing for company growth.
The Importance of Goal-Setting
In most cases, people make New Year’s resolutions for the year and break those resolutions by March. Truth be told, they were not intentional about making the resolution a daily part of their routine. If you’re going to set goals for your company (which you should), you’ll want to figure out a way to strategically break down those goals into daily steps.
First, it’s important to break down your goals into monthly action plans. Then, break it down even more into a daily routine. When you’re able to actively work at a goal on a daily basis, this allows you to gain traction and tackle the things you’ve set your mind to. When you turn a goal into a lofty idea that you write down in a pretty planner and don’t create an executable plan, you’re less likely to get it done.
When it comes to company growth, you’ll want to set goals regarding how to actively grow your company. Whether it’s through a strong marketing team or an amazing product that sells itself, figure out how you want to move forward. Look at which areas you’d need to spend the most time in. If you’ve looked over the numbers and realized you don’t have a huge budget for a marketing campaign, make sure that your product is so good that it sells itself through word-of-mouth marketing efforts.
Implementing Systems for Growth
Sometimes, it takes assessing the situation and getting creative in order to get the results you want. Furthermore, you have to be considerate of the systems that you currently have and how those will serve you as you plan to grow in the future. If you have 20 consistent customers every single month, you don’t have to worry about a website crash due to too many customers at one time. However, this won’t be the case forever. As your company expands and continues to sell excellent products and services, more people will want to visit your website to purchase. You don’t want to experience the breakdown of a website due to too many people on it at once. This is why you should look ahead to consider systems that support growth. A detail such as choosing big commerce enterprise over Shopify Plus is a conversation you’ll want to have with your website developer. Do the research to find out the options that support what you’re trying to do in the marketplace. Don’t wait until it’s a dire necessity to purchase a new service. You could make a wrong decision based on desperation. When you can predict the forecast and prepare the systems in advance, it helps you to operate as a confidently informed entrepreneur.
Outsourcing and Hiring
Do not make the mistake of thinking you can do it all on your own. In fact, this is a great way to crash and burn. You need to hire people to help you move your business forward. If you don’t have the resources to hire a full-time or part-time employee immediately, consider a virtual assistant. As a virtual assistant is able to take tasks off of your plate, you’re able to be more productive with other income-producing activities. Find a graphic designer that you really like. You can hire them for contract work. The same applies to other professionals who can work on a contract team within your business. As you’re able to develop the team, they’ll be able to push your agenda much further. As your financial margin increases, hire team members to work in-house.
With in-house employees, it’s essential for you to embrace the beauty of delegating different tasks to different people. It can be hard at first. There is a learning curve when it comes to training and developing different team members. However, take note of everything you do that is working to train new employees. Keep that system going so that when new people come on you’re not starting from scratch. This effort might sound like a major headache. However, it will save you in the long run when your company is growing faster than you can keep up with.
