What make a business successful? Leadership, management, culture—the list goes on. A key to success is growth and expansion. As your customer base grows, it’s imperative that your company responds with growth.
Not all growth looks the same. For some organizations, it’s best to expand services. For others, it could be opening a new facility. Growth can also be in staffing—hiring key members to your team. Often, these different types of growth correlate and occur concurrently. If you expand services, your organization may need to open another facility to support the expansion. That also requires new staff.
Growing your business can feel like a daunting task. Here are five tips to ease growing pains and ensure success.
Plan
The most necessary step in any type of expansion is thorough planning. Plan realistically and set attainable goals. Be sure you do the research. Do the math and run the numbers. You should have ample data to support your plan. Planning should be collaborative and involve key members of your team. Your plan should account for all phases of your business so include leaders from each department. Make sure your plan includes any organizational and staffing changes.
Hiring
During expansion, be conservative and hire as needed. You must support your organization’s growth but bear in mind that growth is gradual.
Here’s an example: based on your company’s data, let’s say you need to hire three new employees to support an expanded product line. In all likelihood, it will take time for the product line to gain momentum, and even longer before it increases sales and workload. Even more likely is the fact that your organization won’t need all three employees at the same time. If an immediate hire is needed, start there. Then take the time needed to fill the other roles with the right candidates. Sales and workload will dictate the timeline.
Staffing & Scheduling
To support expansion without staffing additions, cross train your team. Cross training serves as a bridge during any staffing changes and can ease the burden during hiring seasons. Make cross training the rule and not the exception as it is very beneficial for daily operations.
Don’t be afraid to shuffle your current staff and management team around based on your need and the talents of your people. Maybe your operation manager needs to assist in your shipping and receiving department. So be it—whatever it takes to get the job done.
Utilizing overtime during periods of growth is another great way smooth any transitions. It’s always more cost effective to pay overtime to your current team than a new hire that could leave prematurely.
Open a New Location
Expanding locations can be an effective way to support your organization’s growth, even if it’s temporary. Business owners can oftentimes be hesitant to open another location as they view it through a permanent lens. It doesn’t have to be permanent if it doesn’t need to be. During times of growth, get comfortable with temporary.
We have practiced this ourselves. In 2020, we rented a facility to support our volume. The facility was listed for sale, but we approached the owner about renting it in the short term. It was a win-win for both parties. We supported the needs of our business while the seller generated revenue.
Pivot
Even if you do everything right, you can still fail and you need to be ok with that. Changing direction, or pivoting, is essential.
We’ve had plans backfire. Our facility outside of Dallas began with the purpose to support one of our largest customers. For a couple years, it was hugely successful. Then we lost the business of that customer. My first thought was one of regret.
This happens to every successful business. Focusing on the negative will only make things worse. The key is to respond and pivot. What can you we do with this facility now? How can we make it work? Now, our Texas facility handles all orders for our Texas, Midwest, and West coast customers as well as the overflow from our Pennsylvania Corporate Headquarters.
Growth at AGiRepair
As our customer base grows, we must grow in services and locations to best support our customers. We’re happy to announce exciting expansions at AGiRepair:
West Coast Facility
In addition to our corporate headquarters in Greensburg, PA and our Carrollton, TX facility, we plan to open a west coast facility that will be fully operational in second quarter 2022. An additional facility and the location will help us process repairs more efficiently and improve turnaround times.
Remember, growth is a good thing! It means your organization is successful. These tips will help in the process, but they don’t mean things will turn out perfectly. Failure is inevitable. What matters is how you respond.
John Yetsconish is the President of AGiRepair, overseeing its daily operations. A leader in mobile device repair, AGiRepair offers comprehensive solutions for school districts, repair depots, and other organizations. For more information, contact us today!
