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All businesses go through growing pains to some extent. There might be a few weeks where everyone is working like a maniac trying to get through all the contracts you have accepted or there might be a painful meeting where you have to turn down a lucrative client because you simply don’t have the time.
Flexibility is crucial to all businesses and being able to scale up your business in times of high demand is the only way that you will be able to grow with the market and ride those profitable waves. But when you aren’t sure whether this is a lucky blip caused by an awesome marketing campaign or a trend, how can you prepare yourselves for what is to come?
There is a danger in bringing on lots of new staff and investing in new technologies and then realising that it was just a crazy month and not a long-lasting thing at all. But there are some things you can do that will help you to manage the load and prepare for your business to go big.
Use Scalable IT Services
With cloud technology, there is no excuse for your IT services to fail to handle change. The greatest benefit of working in the cloud is that you can take as much or as little space as you need and achieve much greater flexibility. You can also use a specialist company like Dyrand to save you money and time while offering you some pertinent advice to help your business progress.
Have a List of Freelancers
Freelancers are great because they are there when you need them and working for someone else when you don’t. Working as a freelancer gives people more freedom to choose their own hours, but it also benefits businesses with growing pains because they can fill in while you figure out whether you need more staff or not.
While freelancers may be more expensive by the hour, they are usually cheaper on a project by project basis and, because they are competing for your work, they will always give you 100% effort. Having a list of freelancers you can turn to is a good idea, though, because you never know when they might be too busy to take you on. They ride these business waves too you know!
Reward Your Staff
When you are looking to scale up and working like crazy, you need to remember that your staff are not bound to you. In other words, you need to make the stress worth it so that they will continue to support you and your business. Rewarding your staff doesn’t have to be anything big or expensive. You just need to figure out a way to say thank you and appreciate what they have done.
A breakfast together could be an idea or giving a gift voucher is a lovely way to treat everyone on the cheap. Alternatively, you could give everyone an extra day of holiday in recognition of the long hours you have been working to build the business up.
