Growth should be gradual and systematic. The more an entrepreneur grows with the process the higher the chances that they will survive and have an easy growth.
Entrepreneurship is a long-term commitment, and it’s a tough commitment. However, nothing is more calming than the growth that is interpreted to more zeros in the account.
The desire to expand if wrongly approached can make the tough commitment unbearable. Growth should be gradual and systematic. The more an entrepreneur grows with the process the higher the chances that they will survive and have an easy growth.
Gaining more clients means becoming better in pitching and winning clients over. The definition of a successful entrepreneur means that one is able to know when to add more clients and when to maintain a sustainable number.
Which of these two comes first as you decide on expansion, marketing or capacity?
Of course, marketing is more clientele and more cheques coming your way while capacity building is spending more internally. However, the truth is in starting off with the latter, capacity building. Why?
In business, there is a concept named “service queue”. This is the number of clients in service consistently for a certain duration. The question is not in the number of clients but the satisfaction that each client gets continuously through your services and products.
The only thing needed in maintaining this is the capacity you have. It’s therefore correct to state that you should market for what you can sustain. This is like asking you to say no to more money for the health of your company and the image in the bigger picture.
This is the reason you find entrepreneurs looking for funding to grow to the next level.
Capacity building encompasses both facilities which I see as tools and human resource. Getting more clients means that you are assigning more tasks to the two.
Imbalance of the two resources is a catastrophe, which can come in different ways.
- Pressure– you are the one that the clients know and besides your internal issues, it is expected that you hold up to the agreed terms and deadlines. You could have the money but the bank account doesn’t execute your entrepreneurial duties.
- Disappointment – pressure builds over time and without a solution resolves to disappointment. It’s worse when the frustration is coming from your clients. The long emails and treacherous calls tear you down even the more.
- Un-recycled clients – the easiest way to run a company is having the same clients consume over and over. One of the benefits is there is already a rapport and a budding relationship. This also comes with a need to understand the nature of your clients and tailoring your solutions to their needs.
- Denting organization’s image – there’s nothing more valuable than the image of your company. The most valuable part of that corporate image is what others see not what you tell them. The image is extensively defined by those that have been in business with you. If you can market the clients in and have the capacity to sail them through, you will have added some polish to your image. The reverse is hard to mend.
These facts aren’t futuristic and they don’t only apply to blue-chip companies. It affects anyone in business. You might not have all of this at your disposal, both marketing and capacity but there is a way out.
Being in the business, I have valued relationships with the small and the independent. They are the group you go to for sub-contracting and sourcing. The biggest blind spot you have to look for here is that as they come in they should blend into your clients as one of your own.
Paul Thandi doubles up as an author and a speaker, mastering two fields, Personal Development and Entrepreneurship“I always knew I had an opinion on how everyone can live by their own terms, if only we could invest more informed efforts in developing our selves” It has been a journey finding self and it’s a fulfilment to share the nuggets as an author. As the picture stitches in, he has built a company from his passions.
CEO and Founder Visible Images.
