Is Your Company Truly Ready for Growth?

you didn;tI have yet to meet a business owner in the Greater Vancouver area who doesn’t want to be successful or to keep improving the performance of their business. Yet many either struggle to reach their goals or are stuck on past successes as they seek the next level.

There are three steps a company must take to truly be ready for growth. Think of “VEA” which is an acronym for Vision, Empower Achieve.

Vision

You cannot plan a course of action unless you know your destination. It is imperative to have a three to five year Strategic Plan. Decide on what you want your company to look like. What are sales going to be? How many employees will you need? Establish these items first. Then you can set goals and targets for you and your team to reach along the journey to your destination.

Empower

With your destination and plan formulated the next step is to ensure that all of your “ducks are in a row” before implementing your plan. Is your company ready for growth? Does your company have the manpower and skill sets to execute the plan? Can your cash flow handle growth?

I have seen many growing companies put themselves in financial distress by running out of cash. I recently spoke with Dan Effa of Liquid Capital Pacific Corp. (financingsuccess.ca) and he shared these comments:

“I frequently hear stories from companies with lots of sales opportunities, but despite this “good news” the owners are stressed out because they don’t have the cash they need for supplies, payroll and so on. Often businesses turn away good profit because they thought they couldn’t get the cash needed to complete the sale and hold the receivables until the customers pay. Sometimes they take on growth too quickly for the given amount of cash they have available, and that can often lead to business failure due to lack of careful planning to ensure all the critical inputs (capital included) are available when needed.

Often accounts receivable factoring or other trade finance options are a good fit in these situations – a company can get all the cash they need during a high growth period, without having to sell a piece of the company at a discounted value before the business grows to its potential”.

Achieve

Finally, this is where the rubber hits the road. Now that you have your destination set, plan of action formulated and your company ready for growth it’s time to execute your plan. Be sure everyone is clear on their goals and milestones and constantly measure progress. Hold everyone accountable for their results and prepare to take corrective action when needed.

If you have tried to grow your business in the past only to be unsuccessful, chances are that you didn’t follow certain steps and processes. If you would like the step by step process to grow your business profitably go to www.empoweredbusiness.ca and download the free e-Book “Enterprise Builder”. You’ll find over 30 pages of exercises and diagnostic tools to help you with your journey. Good Luck!

Tony Malyk, Vancouver Business Performance Coach