When you play Basketball, which game’s rules do you follow?
Sounds like a silly question. But do you know that in your small business, you could be playing by the rules that are no longer relevant? You know it when your revenue is stagnant; you feel stagnant.
If you are a small business, you have to morph as per the new rules or die. When you play by the old rules, you become irrelevant; customers and employees leave you; profits lag; people don’t scale. The rules of the game
change fast. Are you aware of the changing rules or are you busy in the routine of the day?
What do I mean by the ‘rules’? They could be:
1. Extent and the nature of marketing you do
2. Extent of work you delegate
3. Cash reserves and working capital required
4. Number of employees on bench
And when do these rules change? Some events happen that trigger off the change. E.g.
1. When you win a large contract
2. When your product goes beta
3. When you hire an employee; when you hire substantially large number of employees
4. When you get investment from someone otherthan yourself or immediate family
Obviously, these rules and the changes are not exhaustive.
Have you experienced the changing rules yourself? After you realized, what activities in your small business did you change?
Picture credit: Linnybinnypix
Hi Chaitanya,
One of the biggest challenges — a moving target really — is staffing for growth. I feel like we are always playing catch-up. You get a substantial increase in business — and woo-hoo, it’s good news, bad news. Good news because it’s new business and more revenues. Bad news when the reality hits: how the heck am I going to carry it all out???
It requires constant juggling, and reassessing where you are and what you need to do.
Anita
Anita,
I agree. I know one small biz owner who started with a contract in hand. The biggest risk he saw was fulfilling his contract.
I suggest to people that they fix up a time and date (e.g. Monday after noon 2 pm) to review their business. This will help think through.
I would suggest considering p2w2 (www.p2w2.com) as a solution to the staffing problem you mentioned. Because p2w2 gives you the flexibility to access talent when you need and discontinue when you don’t.