November 16th 2021
Building up a business is a daunting thought, but as long as you have all the right procedures in place, it becomes an exciting endeavour to undertake. Going from start-up to a small to medium enterprise is a big step and requires a lot of careful planning and record-keeping to get you there.
In this guide, we’ll give you some helpful tips on what you can do to ensure your business doesn’t get hindered as you grow. Whether it’s manifesting a positive company culture, necessary business admin and even the development and expansion of your services or products, we’ll help you to understand the steps you need to take to grow beyond that start-up status.
Your Company Culture and the People That Make Your Team
Start-Ups typically have smaller and more dedicated teams, with people that are familiar with each other’s working styles. They share the same common goals and aspirations for the business and are all on the same page when it comes to seeking success. This is why, when the time comes where you are looking to hire new talent, it can be a daunting thought which has the potential to upset the equilibrium of the team. While new hires can initially upset the balance, they are a necessary step to take for the growth and health of your business. Taking on talented and driven individuals can help to catapult the efficiency of your business to new heights, while they can also bring new ideas to the table. You can read our guide on how to improve your recruitment process to find out how to streamline your recruiting.
As you grow, focusing on hiring people who are the right fit for your business will help to form a cohesive team and produce a positive company culture and atmosphere, which can exponentially boost your productivity. Also keep in mind that, as your business grows, you may need more space to accommodate your new team members, so take a look at our vast selection serviced offices if you’re at the expansion stage right now.
How Business Administration Can Make or Break You
There aren’t many people in the business world who actually enjoy administration tasks, but unfortunately they are a necessary evil. Early on in the life of a start-up, there may be certain practices or procedures that you may not need to follow, especially considering your smaller team is likely to be up to date with all business dealings. Later on, however, they become a critical part of keeping your business afloat, where you must keep track of almost everything your business does in an efficient manner.
Keeping records as you grow is imperative because the larger you get, the more you have to pay attention to things such as VAT and VAT registration, industry regulations, payroll and many different employment laws that can affect how you hire and operate. This is where hiring a business administrator directly can help to take the headache out of having to keep track of every crumb of the cookie. The sooner you set up a form of tracking and monitoring system for your business, the less you’ll have to implement later down the line, and it’ll also aid you in projecting future growth and expansion.
Sales, Marketing and Leads – Developing Business Acumen
There are many different spokes to the wheel of running a business, but they all come together to keep it rolling in the right direction. Salespeople and marketers out front are very different to developers or engineers behind the scenes, but they all play vital roles. As your business grows, you’ll need to ensure that each valued member of your team (and any future employees) have their own motivations and personal goals for their respective roles. This will help to drive the growth of your business.
The bigger you get, the less you’ll be relying on personal connections to generate leads. You’ll need to be seeking your own business opportunities. Efficient handling of leads is vital in modern business, and you’ll need to make sure the right people are dealing with the right clients. Eventually, you may want to develop a ‘sales force’, but this can put a barrier between upper management/founders if done too early in the life of your company. So, you should only do this when you’ve reached a level of comfortability in lead generation and have full faith in your team(s) to deliver.
Product and Service Development and How to Successfully Innovate
Early on, you’re likely to have one or two people on your team that drive the entire product or service development. This is normal in the life of a start-up. But eventually, as you get bigger, the requirement for expansion becomes the next natural step. This is where those founding members who initially drove the product or service must let others shoulder the burden just a little. This not only helps to expand those product lines or services, but also can drive further innovation and new ideas.
Approaches to projects may also need to have a revamp. An ad hoc approach will no longer suit a growing business, and strict deadlines and deliverables need to be adhered to. In software development for example, Agile Methodologies, can be used to produce great results in shorter sprints, as opposed to debriefing upon project completion. Similar methods can be applied to other working areas of the business too, where you can employ specialisation, co-ordination, and effective communication to reach your business goals over set periods of time. These will ensure that multiple teams of people can be working towards the same end goal.
Keep in Financial Control of Your Business
All start-ups want to make money. They simply must in order to survive in the cutthroat world of business. Tracking every penny in the early days may not be necessary, but as you move up, the focus on finances will be the life or death of your business. Efficient control and tracking of expenditures will be vital as you move away from the use of paper notes and verbal promises. The tracking of invoices, receipts, income, and outgoings will all need to be kept in a finance system.
A finance system helps to keep an eye on where your money is moving, and the bigger you get, the more laws and regulations will apply to you. A VAT registered business will have to keep financial records by mandate, so to avoid getting on the wrong side of the law, it’s best to understand and implement these practices as early as possible. The more successful you are as a business, the more scrutiny you’ll be under, and that’s just how the cookie crumbles.
As you grow your business, your team grows, and you get to grips with success, it’s important to understand the steps you took in order to get there. You need to continuously evaluate where you are now, and where you want to be to facilitate further growth.
If you’re expanding your team and need more desks to cover your growing headcount, take a look at our serviced office spaces or our managed offices to find your ideal workplace.
Similarly, if you’re a start-up looking for a place to call home (for now), head over to our co-working office space page, to find collaborative environments with other budding business start-ups just like you.
