Who says you have to grow your business?
Posted by Laddie Blaskowski on Apr 16, 2008
I often hear business people say that if you’re not growing you’re dying. I simply don’t believe this is true. The concept of “you must grow or die” really comes out of big companies. Certainly, if you’re competing with a company in a high-tech industry, you do have to grow or else your competitors will devour you. But for most business owners, that isn’t the case. Businesses can grow to a certain level, maximize capabilities at that level, and then operate very successfully at that level for a very long time.
If you’re considering company expansion, consider these questions:
- Do you want to take the risk that it takes to grow your business to the next level?
- Do you want your role in the business to change, with your having a less hands-on function and a more managerial role? (This generally occurs with significant business growth.)
- Do you have a good, solid reason for wanting to take the business to the next level?
If you can’t answer yes to all of these questions, then you should probably stay at your current level, working to make the business as efficient and profitable at that level as possible.
If you do feel that you want to grow, I would recommend that you read my book, The Step Dynamic: A Powerful Strategy for Successfully Growing Your Business, because it gives critical strategies for making the right decisions at the right time so that you can avoid pitfalls and grow successfully.