Can a business grow too quickly?

IT is often difficult for growing companies to keep up to speed at every turn with customers, products, funding and finance.

“All of a sudden you find you don’t have the right infrastructure in place,” said EY partner and entrepreneurial business specialist Victoria Price.

“Sometimes you don’t have the right expertise. Or you find that people expand and then inadvertently trip-up on various compliance issues, particularly in relation to overseas markets, and they don’t have the expertise in house.

“It’s important in the fast-growth stage to not just focus on growing the top line and pleasing the customer, it’s making sure you look at everything. It’s not always easy to do.”

This strikes a chord with Mark Januszewski, founder and chief executive of Salford-based kitchens and homewares business Designer Habitat.

He said: “Sometimes you have to put a brake on growth if you don’t have the infrastructure or the team and management in place. You almost grieve though if you are unable to take an opportunity.”

He said Designer Habitat’s biggest challenge is recruiting people, and “trying to get the infrastructure right ahead of growth”.

EY and TheBusinessDesk.com have worked together on a project celebrating some of the north’s most successful entrepreneurs, looking at their journey to the top and the challenges they have overcome as their business has grown and developed. 

This interview is just one of many in our free downloadable 19 page PDF supplement on Driving Entrepreneurship.

 

Mark Brown, co-founder and director of south Manchester-based recruiter Worldwide Recruitment Solutions, said that hiring the right people was the crucial to WRS too, and a dearth of talent meant he had to find his own solution.

“We recognised we were never going to be able to bring in experienced people because there wasn’t that pool of talent that we needed to grow to a critical mass.

“So we went into the graduate market looking for people with the right attitude and hunger and built a training programme around them.”

Designer Habitat is also curating its own talent. Januszewsk said: “Yes you need a certain base level of skills, but you can’t teach attitude, and how to be hungry for business.”

Ian Kelly, who built-up and sold green energy group Matrix and is now a non-executive director of a number of growing businesses, said recruitment is one challenge, but monitoring performance of newcomers should not be forgotten.

“One thing I am massively keen on is bringing in an ROI tracker on people to measure their contribution each month.

“What happens in fast growth, and I have seen it loads of times, is your top line is flying away and it’s hiding the fact that you have got underperforming people in your business, and guess what? once it starts flattening out you realise that Billy-Bob’s done nothing.”

Kelly, who also chaired the EY Northern Entrepreneur of the Year judging panel, said one fundamental thing should not be forgotten: “It’s absolutely critical for me when you are in growth phase that you don’t screw-up your service to existing customers. The last thing you want is them feeling unloved, so over-invest in your sales team.”

EY’s annual Entrepreneur Of The Year is still open for entries. Apply here

This interview is just one of many in our free downloadable 19 page PDF supplement on Driving Entrepreneurship.

 

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