The risks of growth to your business

Success gives you confidence. Your business is running well and opportunities abound. Your business shows great growth rates and the outlook is bright. Delicious. But be aware of what you can handle in terms of time, focus and risk. What might you be up against? By being aware of the pitfalls, you keep a grip on the risks of business growth.

Growth expectations are not being met in practice

Risks are part of being an entrepreneur and, therefore, of achieving business growth, you might think. After all, you know you have to feed before you can fish. Based on your growth expectations, you expand, with new colleagues, new workspace, more inventory, et cetera. But what if you can't meet your growth expectations? How flexible are you then and how long can you continue to finance this? Can you still make adjustments to avoid losses? And perhaps more importantly, when should you draw the conclusion that your plans were too ambitious? Timely recognition that reality develops differently than expected, and being able to adjust accordingly, is crucial. So make sure you build enough flexibility into your business to be able to change your course.

Blinded by growth: don't forget what you've already accomplished

Entering new markets and bringing in new customers is, of course, very nice. But take advantage of the opportunities that are appropriate. And at the same time, don't forget to continue serving your existing customers and markets as well. So distribute your capacity well and don't just focus on your growth. Also take a critical look at yourself and your team: do you have the right people for your organization's current challenges? Attracting specialist knowledge for growth markets, or hiring a good manager to mind the store when you are pursuing new opportunities, can be a smart choice to preserve and build on what you already have.

Insufficient focus on innovation and development

Suppose your product catches on and everyone wants it. You have to pull out all the stops to meet demand. What is your next step? After all, your competitors are not sitting still and market demand will also continue to develop. So it is important not to limit yourself to your current products, no matter how successful they are now. Keep innovating and developing and think carefully about the next step(s). Success, unfortunately, is fleeting.