Growing your business is one thing, but maintaining that growth over
time is another matter. Identifying what led to your success in the
first place and building on that, without running into cash-flow
problems is a real challenge.
In economic terms, a sustainable growth rate (SGR) is is the maximum
growth rate in sales a business can fulfill using only their internal
financial resources; ie without loans or further outside investment.
Growing too quickly sounds like a nice problem to have, but without the
cash at hand to cover new premises, staff and other infrastructure, that
progress can come to a crashing halt.
How do businesses reach that sweet spot where they are achieving the
right amount of growth without entirely depleting funds? This question
is made all the more difficult due to trends outside of anybody’s direct
control. Considerations such as the wider economy, consumer tastes and
expectations, emerging technology and political events all contribute to
uncertainty at the best of times. But there are steps you can take to
keep you on the right course.
Inefficiency
Identifying and eliminating anything that might be stopping your company
from reaching its full potential is essential before you can estimate a
realistic sustainable growth rate. Breaking down your business processes
into clearly identified stages that can be analysed and optimised is the
most effective way of achieving this. Having an accurate and
comprehensive overview of how every aspect of your organisation operates
will bring any weak spots to light.
Running a more efficient operation allows you to expand and fulfill
orders at lower overheads, reducing the requirement to seek further
outside investment or borrowing.
The right clients
It can be tempting for a growing business to take on as much new work as
possible, but this decision isn’t as clear cut as it seems. Not all
clients are equal, as some may require more attention and effort for
lower returns. Some customers may even cost you money in the long run.
Having the tools at hand to properly itemise and evaluate every job at
hand is invaluable when deciding which orders or contracts to fulfil.
Once you’ve gained clients that provide a steady-flow of worthwhile
work, you’ll need to ensure they stay on board. Consistent, high-quality
customer service is an essential part of this effort, especially in a
market where customers can compare and switch to another service in
minutes.
A clear path forward
Knowing what’s working or not in your business is essential to forming
any kind of plan for sustainable growth, and accurate, up-to-date
information is vital to making these decisions. Collecting data in real
time provides a far greater degree of accuracy, compared to surveys and
estimates which may not correspond with the reality on the ground.
Being able to visualise the relevant business data in the form of charts
and graphs gives you an immediate sense of what needs to be implemented
to sustain growth.
How SwiftCase helps
SwiftCase is a powerful business process management platform, with a
range of features that facilitate sustainable growth:
- Break your business processes down into clearly designated stages,
optimise your workflow - Calculate profit margins, pick clients and projects based on commercial
viability - Collect business data in real time, cut out the guesswork
- Generate business charts and graphs based on a wide range of business
criteria
Get in touch today, for a free, no-obligation demonstration.