Change needs to be managed

Many businesses depend on some form of management structure. While a business may last for an indefinable amount of time without proper management, it is not a recommended practice. Having management in place in a business helps to provide direction, and keep the controls that are in place working for the business instead of against the business.

The same is often true for growth. While growth can go unattended for some time it is not something that is recommended. Due to the nature of growth itself, leaving it to take its own course can leave you open to more likely a lower then expected outcome.

Providing management to the growth of your business is something that will ensure the growth flows and provides a benefit to your business. While you want to leave some freedom to the growth as it comes, there are many aspects of a business that require assistance in growing. Things like

• Support structure’s – Growth often requires better structures in place to support it, warehouse systems, distribution systems, support systems and sales systems. All of these systems often will need additional consideration to help support growth, and often have the potential to fail without the proper support themselves in times of growth
• Cash-Flow – Potentially one of the most important aspects of growth is managing how the cash flow will be affected. Maintaining a positive cash flow in a business experiencing high growth can be difficult, however if it something which you are aware of it can make it somewhat easier.
• Business risks – When a business is experiencing growth there is inevitably more risks involved. A high chance of unpaid bills, more bills to pay from suppliers, more potential returns, and many other things. All of these if they are managed and are things that you are aware of being possible up front, are things that can have plans put in place to avoid them, or at least lower the potential impact.

While there is potential to lose a lot of time managing growth, if you take a smart approach and be aware of the potential issue’s up front, then down the track less management is required. Just being aware and planning for some of the above points before they actually occur can even be enough. What some of this comes back to is that a proactive approach to managing growth can often give a better and less time intensive outcome then trying to manage growth as it is happening.