{"id":2023,"date":"2016-02-23T09:27:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T08:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melyakub.com\/?p=2023"},"modified":"2018-06-21T01:49:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T00:49:15","slug":"managing-business-growth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melyakub.com\/?p=2023","title":{"rendered":"Managing Business Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"business_growth_and_success\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Entrepreneurs are extremely ambitious. It is a default setting in them! They dream of taking their garage start-up to the Nigerian Stock Exchange within the first seven years of starting. This is a perfectly legitimate, even noble, ambition. However, the steps they take must be right and appropriate if they are to escape unforeseen and unexpected pitfalls that could threaten the very existence of the enterprise and cause personal distress.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an entrepreneur, understanding business growth process and stages will help you anticipate and handle the challenges that will certainly confront you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Defining Growth:<\/strong>\u00a0Simply speaking, improving any preferred and identified measure of success is growth. Specifically, increasing revenue and\/or profitability are the usual measures of business growth. These are ‘direct’ measures, as against other ‘indirect’ measures such as product diversification, number of employees, regional outreach, increase in asset base etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Different models and frameworks depicting business growth have been developed by different academics and consulting groups. Most agree that there are generally five stages of business growth. We will discuss the features of each stage and what you need to watch out for and do at those stages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"image002\"<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(credit: the manager.org)<\/span><\/p>\n

Existence:<\/strong> This is typically an early start-up stage. It is a very risky stage where capital, expertise and even labour have to be provided by you, family and friends. There are normally only very few employees comprising of yourself and the others who may or not be sufficiently qualified for the responsibilities assigned to them. The business has a flat organisational structure and its operations are highly undocumented.At this stage, only you and may be, just may be, a few others have faith in what you want to do. Emotional strength and stamina are key to your successfully navigating through this stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

This stage is characterised by the need to get customers and make enough sales to cover costs and make some positive net return. Your initial enthusiasm can be tested as getting positive customer response becomes more difficult than anticipated. Other times, ‘beginners luck’ makes it possible to catch a few good deals right from the beginning. Failure to attract sufficient number of customers and gain product acceptance can lead to business closure or failure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter what your initial experience, what you will need to focus\u00a0<\/span>on the<\/span>\u00a0following:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n