When small businesses grow, they face a much larger strain than larger businesses do.
Rapid growth – growth that significantly exceeds the market average for your industry or revenue that increases by at least 20 percent year over year – is even more difficult to handle.
As the owner of a rapidly growing small business, you have to adjust to the changes quickly, otherwise, you can regress to worse than how you started – or close your doors entirely due to unhappy customers.
CSI Accounting & Payroll has guided small business growth with our advisory services for over 50 years. We’ve seen how growth can be both a good and bad thing with these common issues:
- Cash flow issues
- Employment issues
- Surging expenses
1.) Cash Flow Issues
When your small business is in rapid growth, you will likely find yourself spending a lot more money. You want to quickly invest in additional labor and add equipment or technology that can help make you more efficient.
You will also have a lot more products and services going out the door. Unless you collect for them right away, you’ll have a period of time when you’re waiting for the money to come back in.
This can leave you short on cash at times. Remember, you never want to use debt to operate your business – only to invest in growth. Luckily, CSI can help improve your cash flow!
2.) Employment Issues
During rapid growth, employment is a major issue in two ways: hiring and maintaining workers.
You need to quickly hire the right people to fulfill the growing demand from customers. It’s hard enough to find people with the right backgrounds, much less in a time crunch, especially in industries requiring higher education.
If you don’t hire the right people fast enough and face turnover, it puts extra stress on your other employees. Burnout can ruin your company’s culture, and they will inevitably decide to leave unless you give them the right incentives to stay.
When you work with CSI, we proactively plan for growth, allowing you to hire for new roles with plenty of time to spare. Plus, our clients can offer their employees retirement plans and payroll features to make their lives easier, improving retention.
3.) Surging Expenses
As we mentioned above, in times of rapid growth, small businesses will often be spending a lot more money. While this usually goes toward hiring or purchases to improve efficiency, spending isn’t always done wisely.
If you’re predicting growth but don’t have the financial insight to back it up, you can end up buying things that you end up not needing. Maybe you got too much of something, or something else expires or breaks down before you’re ready to use it.
On the other hand, you could also not see an expense coming and end up paying more for it to be rushed when you need it.
Ultimately, CSI’s complimentary advisory services for our clients – combined with our tax planning and projections – help you see what you’ll need before you need it. You can avoid overspending with this insight.
Handle Growth With Grace!
Growth isn’t always fun, but the right financial insights can get you through!
Now that you know about common problems that can occur, such as cash flow issues, employment issues, and surging expenses, are you ready to check out monthly accounting services?
If so, please consider CSI Accounting & Payroll! To see if we can be a good fit for your business, click the button below for a free consultation:
Not ready to talk? That’s okay! First, learn more about the types of advice that a monthly accountant can provide by clicking the image below:
