6 signs your small business is growing quickly

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

By Rayanne Morriss

The U.S. economy runs on small businesses. On average, 37 million companies work hard to draw consumers’ attention. When you start to see success, it is important that your business is able to keep up and maintain it. If not, you run the risk of becoming too overwhelmed and your customers will not receive the best service. Stay aware and become more knowledgeable about how your small business can stay on to maintain growth. Here are six items that let you know your small business is growing.

1) Clients start coming to you

The first goal of starting a business is to build a client list. It’s done through cold calls & emails, footwork, and promotion. With persistence, you create a list of customers. In turn, they recommend your services to others. Eventually, you reach the moment where you don’t have to look for customers. They start coming to you, and not in a drizzle. Your small business is quickly growing when you have a deluge. It gets to the point you have to hire others to help.

2) You consider outsourcing business operations

Small business owners are multitaskers. They handle sales & marketing, billing, and technical support. Sometimes, you spend more time handling day-to-day operations than creating products to improve income. The situation changes when your small business sees rapid growth. The influx of income allows you to outsource some of the daily tasks. For instance, you hire an IT as a service (ITAS) organization to deal with your digital infrastructure. Additionally, you bring on other third-party companies to handle accounting, warehouse control, and human resources. In other words, reaching a bursting point allows you to hand off the company’s operations to reliable and dedicated employees. You become a business owner instead of an owner and operator.

3) You get good and bad reviews

You dedicate sweat equity to creating a successful business. In exchange, you look for word-of-mouth to spread in the form of reviews. You don’t see many of these if your business doesn’t grow. Conversely, your products receive continual reviews when your company quickly expands. Not all of them will be good, mind you. Some reviews will be from frustrated customers unhappy with your products or service. You must immediately respond to poor reviews even when you’re rapidly growing. It’s an opportunity to turn a negative rating into something positive.

4) You raise your prices

There comes a point in a business’ life when you decide to raise prices. Most likely, it’s when you believe what you currently charge is below your experience. A decision like this isn’t scary when your company has a growth spurt. You’ll probably lose some clients who don’t feel your skills are worth the increase. However, most will remain because they consider you a subject matter expert that produces quality material. They’ll let others know as well to continue the organization’s momentum.

5) Implemented processes begin to work

There are many moving parts in a small business. Although some have to be handled manually, like product development, automate others to ease your ongoing pressures. For instance, you can implement applications to handle billing, vendor payments, and appointment scheduling. The goal is to get them to work smoothly. In doing so, you return your focus to products and clients. You know your small business is rapidly expanding when these processes start to work. It may take time to fine-tune them; however, they’ll eventually become background processes. You’ll only need to work on them when they require updates. Yet, you’ll probably have an IT team to work on them as your business continues to expand. With hard work and persistence, your organization can see growth.

6) You plan for the future

When you start a small business, the future is the next quarter. You don’t look at the broader outlook. However, this plan changes when your business quickly grows. Regular income and customers allow you to plan beyond the next few months. Instead, you plan years out with product introductions and enhancements. Furthermore, you look into promotions that last months instead of weeks. You may even hire a data analyst to look at your company’s information and find ways to perform its operations. In the end, growth equals optimism.

Conclusion

Don’t worry if you aren’t at this stage in your business. Keep going, and don’t quit because your success is around the corner. If you think your company’s about to reach a bursting point, review the items above. They’ll provide a blueprint to move toward more success levels.

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Rayanne Morriss is currently working towards her BA from Oregon State University. She loves to read, travel, and paint. She enjoys finding new coffee shops with friends and expanding her cooking skills with her husband.

4 comments

  1. Great Article! Business growth can sometimes be overwhelming, however, it is important to celebrate the goals and milestones. This was a great read though. Keep sharing.

  2. Jobin Reddy says:

    Great post on the signs of a quickly growing small business. It’s important for business owners to pay attention to these indicators in order to manage growth and make smart decisions for the future. I especially liked the point about needing to hire more staff, as this is often a clear sign that a business is expanding. Keep up the good work!

  3. If you notice an increase in customer base, higher revenues, more staff and larger premises, then it is likely that your small business is rapidly expanding. However, if the business’s financial statements become increasingly complex or you can barely keep up with day-to-day operations, then it might be time to pause and assess whether the growth is sustainable for the long-term success of your business.

  4. Evan Goodman says:

    Thanks for this insightful post, Rayanne Morriss! It’s great to see you highlighting the signs of rapid business growth. While you’ve covered these indicators brilliantly, I’d like to add a quick perspective on the importance of maintaining your company’s core values as it grows.

    As your small business takes off, it’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of expansion and success. However, it’s crucial to stay grounded and ensure that the values and principles that guided your business from the start remain intact. These values are often the essence of what sets your business apart and resonates with your customers.

    So, amidst the excitement of growth, remember to regularly revisit and reinforce your core values with your team.

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