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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s in these expansion phases that business advisors become key. MacIntyre Hudson can help you with the next step in your business, including:
Outsourcing support for HR, payroll, accounting, tax and compliance
Tax registration, planning and paperwork
International trade and employment licenses
Get in touch to discuss the next steps for you and your business.