Business owners always hope their organizations will grow and thrive. But often after achieving initial success, the hurdle that follows is deciding when it’s time to expand. Develop too slowly, and you may miss significant opportunities. Expand too quickly, and you face another set of issues entirely.
To offer some advice on this conundrum, Business Report recently asked three local professionals—Stephen St. Cyr, president of Vivid Ink Graphics; Chad Dudley, partner at Dudley Debosier Injury Lawyers; and Stephen Waters, senior business consultant with the Louisiana Small Business Development Center at Southern University—how to know when it’s the right time to grow a successful venture.
“You’ve probably heard the adage, ‘You’re either growing or dying.’ While true, it misses the point,” says St. Cyr in the magazine’s new Case Study feature. “You shouldn’t seek to grow, but to improve. Usually—yet not always—growth is an offshoot of improvement. … Personally, I found if we consistently seek to improve our facilities, equipment, processes and, most importantly, our people, growth is the natural byproduct.”
Dudley says his firm believes there are two types of growth.
“There is growth that occurs naturally through word of mouth, and growth that occurs through advertising or marketing efforts,” he says. “Natural growth occurs when your clients are happy with the work that you do and they tell other people about your services. This type of growth should be happening all the time. If it is not, you should take a hard look at how you are providing your products or services.”
When considering how to best grow your business, Waters says it’s a good idea to start by revisiting your initial business plan.
“What were your goals when you started? What are they now? How did you arrive at your current measure of success? What are the key elements to your success? Can they be duplicated?” he says. “You must know your competition. If you want your business to grow, then one of two things will need to happen: you either take customers from your competitors, or you create a product or service that they don’t have.”
Read the complete Case Study feature from the current issue of Business Report. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.
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