Sometimes the journey from small business to large business can be a daunting one, especially when it comes to the financial leap involved in outgoings. Although you hope that once the order book is full to overflowing, the businesses finances will bounce back, there is always a time when you are holding your breath, and you have to take risks.  

Surround yourself with the correct team 

It is important that regardless of what kind of business you are running, you surround yourself with the right kind of people. It is not necessary to get the actual qualifications right, providing the person has the right mentality for your business and a thirst for knowledge with a strong desire to learn. They also have to be able to fit in and get along with the rest of your team. 

You could go all out and get yourself a highly qualified person for a role. However, apart from paying through the nose for their qualifications, you could find yourself with an employee who does not work well with others, will not take instruction and believes that they already know all there is to know about everything. 

The business model of an organization sometimes changes as the business grows, for example, a niche product offering becomes a broad offering to meet the demands of a mature marketplace. Having the right people on hand who are adaptive to change and offer positive engagement with the change process will be invaluable. Any consulting book or good business book will reiterate the need to have change champions on your team.

On the other hand, you could find yourself an employee who will bend over backwards to help your company’s progression, bring a wealth of knowledge from different areas, has a strong appetite for learning and is a real team player. 

Having someone like this on your team is so beneficial, as not only will your team work well together, but you will be able to get them trained correctly to your business’s standards – and even if you are the one footing the bill for their training, you will not have to pay the huge wage bill that you would on an otherwise already qualified person from the outset. 

Take full advantage of being able to outsource work 

In this day and age, it is so easy to outsource (definition) work to subcontractors or to hire the services of other businesses on an outsourcing basis. There are so many roles within a business that can be outsourced; from virtual assistants to IT services to writers, and you can even use a specific payroll outsource to organize your business’s finances. 

It makes so much sense to use outsourcing services as much as possible throughout the business cycle. Not only will it save you paying wages for unnecessary employees, you will only be paying for the time the subcontractors are working on your business’s behalf, rather than paying a regular wage. 

Ensure that your customer service is totally up to scratch 

Giving as much time and attention to your customers as possible is well worth the time of your employees. There are ways in which you can improve any relationship you have with your customers, such as by giving them as much information as you can about their orders and how they are progressing, and by abiding by excellent business ethics.   

Using the correct software will allow your employees to keep track of what information or correspondence has already been sent to your customers. Keeping track of their orders means you can sell to them again and offer them similar products to those which they have bought. You can also send prompts when it is likely that they may need to reorder. 

It’s important to give your employees the correct training so that they are well versed in awkward conversations and that they are courteous and respectful at all times. This includes making sure that each and every customer – regardless of how difficult or how easy they may have been – is given the same amount of after-sales service care and that any feedback is made a note of and rectified.