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Established business

Established business

Congratulations! You’re one of the 10% who survive start-up life, and who scale up with intelligence and promise. There’s still headaches to take care of, though.

Mature businesses must play a game of patience

Don’t rest on your laurels

Your business has reached a level of market knowledge - perhaps even dominance - and is a stable presence in the industry. This is both a blessing and a curse. If you don’t continue to push forward and innovate, you’ll grow stagnant and lose share. But push too hard, and you’ll flounder.

So, keep your focus

Focus on improvement and productivity, better business practices, automation, outsourcing. You may even consider bringing in external consultants and business advisors to help you work out what’s next.

Consider your own position

Many businesses change leadership at this stage; they bring in an experienced CEO to help with further expansion, or they exit the business. The question is not just one for business growth, it’s about your own personal growth and ambitions, too.

Is the business ready for more?

Even with strong and stable profits year-on-year, make sure there is enough opportunity in new markets and, most importantly, that your business is financially stable enough to recover from an unsuccessful attempt at expansion - because that happens more regularly than you think.

Compliance is key, even for mature business

Consider outsourcing support

While you’re working on your new business model, the wheels need to keep turning. You have staff to pay, tax returns to file, transactions to monitor. It could be that outsourcing your back-office functions - things like accounting, regulatory compliance, payroll - will bring you the efficiencies you need to focus leadership attention on expansion. Outsourcing essential business functions can also aid growth by helping you to land and expand quicker, more easily and more effectively than setting up an entire new team.

Do your due diligence

Keep an eye on compliance. One foot wrong with regulation, and you could face large fines and threats to your business. Keep up-to-date with regulatory changes, and have someone you trust doing the checks and balances.