The sudden expansion and growth of a startup that is not prepared can stunt that growth, leading to the ultimate demise of the business. Companies that do not stay true to their core values with a focus on the customer can find their customer retention percentage plummeting. The right leadership will allow a company to grow with the right strategies and processes put into place. A proactive approach to fixing little problems that might compound with growth will eliminate these problems instead of letting them worsen. Staying efficient with costs staying low and production staying high will help maximize profitability during this busy time. The following are tips to help stay efficient and keep a startup on track when experiencing sudden immense growth.
Job Scheduling Software
Job scheduling software can make it easier to automate data across a company eliminating the need to transfer information from platform to platform. Finding the right scheduling software can allow a company to grow efficiently in terms of IT and data management. There are going to be plenty of tools that can help make the growing process go as smoothly as possible. These business solutions do differ in quality, with some having basic versions while others help a company attain unlimited scalability of specific processes.
Time Tracking Software
There is an immense amount of time theft that goes on where people are surfing social media or watching videos online. With growth, there is less of a chance for management to be looking over the shoulders of employees with this actually being a waste of time. The added benefit of being able to see where star employees are spending most of their time can provide a lot of information. Seeing patterns of productivity from all different levels of employees can help create training programs as well as help optimize processes. Employees that have a problem with this are the ones that spend company time doing things not even remotely related to their job.
Creation of Scalable Processes
Sudden growth can break processes that were made when the business was much smaller. Scalable processes are important and can allow a business to grow without impacting the quality of work/product delivered to customers. Freelancers can be a great way to scale these processes as there are plenty available that can deliver anything from web design work, copywriting, or even a task as simple as data entry. Automation should be investigated as this will eliminate human error and will make processes seamless. Asking employees how they would scale processes in their roles can be a huge help for management that might not know the intricacies of specific jobs.
CRM Needs to Be Used in a Thorough Manner
The customer base growing quickly can leave management scrambling to find account managers. This time of flux can be make or break for new customers, so utilizing the CRM to its fullest extent is imperative. Current clients, as well as new clients, are going to want to feel valued, so every conversation and email should be noted in the CRM. The CRM can also be used to build personal rapport with clients by noting small things, like if they mentioned a birthday. Sending over client appreciation gifts can do wonders for retaining these clients as a personal relationship is built. When transitioning a client to a new account manager this should be done sensitively as the client might take their business elsewhere. Having the new account manager fly out to see their new clients from other managers can be that perfect touch that helps the transition go smoothly.
Money Invested in Digital Marketing Should Increase
Startups that are starting to compete with much larger corporations need to keep a focus on digital marketing. Competing in search engine rankings for keywords can cost thousands or even millions of dollars per year, depending on the niche. A startup has the luxury of not having large boards or long approval processes for marketing campaigns, which should be used as an advantage. The ability to be more creative or edgy is also available for startups as many large companies desire to stay as far away from an edgy image as possible. Content creation can turn a startup into a thought leader on specific subjects, which will only create backlinks on relevant sites citing a piece of content as a resource. Tracking the ROI on every type of campaign can allow a growing company to allocate marketing budget appropriately with data to back the strategy.
The growth of a startup can be extremely exciting for everyone involved as it can offer immense professional opportunities for employees. Being able to watch a company grow that has a staff that is close and keeps the company culture healthy is an amazing process to view. Take the time to make sure your startup keeps the tips above in mind when growing.
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