Planning for Growth? In a recession? Really?!
Wow, we’ve spent the last couple years devoting all of our time to the challenges of a bad economy. “Downsizing” and “bankruptcy” have been on the lips of everyone from news anchors to home based business owners. At times it has seemed insane to try and start a company in the middle of this economic wasteland. Even crazier, why would you prepare for growth?
My fellow business owners here in California and I have a saying,”if you can run your business in California, you can run it anywhere.” That’s a sad but very true statement. California is one of the worst states to start a business in. There is so much opportunity but the cost sometimes outweighs the potential. Throughout this recession I’ve added to the slogan saying, “if you can grow a business in this recession, you can grow it any time.”
Our flagship company, New Harbor Design is growing daily and we are even strategizing and planning for rapid expansion in the very near future. I’m always reluctant to tell people this as I don’t want to “jinx” the company or get our hopes up. Even more I don’t want to come off as arrogant or, worse, stupid if we don’t expand. I’ve second guessed spending the energy on growth questioning whether we should keep going and then just cross that bridge when we get to it. Regardless, we’re still planning for growth.
Today I got an e-mail from my favorite business magazine, Entrepreneur. I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed a new article “9 Ways to Prepare for Growth and Success.” This piece was very encouraging as I’m not alone in planning for growth. Even better, a lot of the tips they give are already on our list which makes me feel that we’re on the right track.
Take a moment and look over their tips. Are these suggestions on your list for growth? I looked down the list and created a mental report card both for my company and for the companies I’ve worked for in the past who have not faired so well during their growth. It is astounding how much these mere suggestions play a huge role in success and failure so much so that I would not refer to them as “tips” but rather “laws” for proper growth.
