Don't let success be the reason for failure

As your business develops and start to grow, you will soon realise that growth puts an enormous amount of pressure on your business.
It is important to have a plan to accommodate growth, as a business should always aim at gaining maximum benefit and revenue from its customers.
Preparation and planning is paramount to the long term survival of your business. Once the wave of success breaks on your shore things will happen very quickly, and there will not be sufficient time for planning.
If you are not prepared you might not be in business much longer.

"5 things you should do to prepare for success"

1. Always know what you are going to do next

Growth means more customers. More customers will require more goods / services, human resources, and cash flow.
You will probably need to expand your premises, or find a bigger space to conduct your business.
In order to expand you will need access to finance.

Know what you will do next by asking the following questions:

Who? (Example: We need more people. Who will be the best for this...?)
What? (Example: What skills will be required to accommodate this change...?)
Where? (Example: Where will we go if we need to move to a larger office...?)
When? (Example: When / How long will it take for us to be prepared and ready..?)
How? (Example: How will we finance the expansion...? How much people will we need?)

2. Know your customers better

As your clients become more, so does their needs, requirements, and expectations. Your clients will expect better and faster service at more competitive prices.
Do your research. Conduct a survey to determine how and if your clients' needs have changed.
Don't spend all your money on market research and data you can not trust.
Ask your clients what they need, they are usually more than willing to give you a piece of their mind.

3. Be prepared for a fast pace

The last you thing you want to tell your customers is that you are not able to meet their demands, or that you don't have enough competent people to do the work.
Do your planning ahead of time. Make use of schedules, charts, and enterprise resource planning systems suited for your business.
Always keep records of everything. Use your data and statistics to identify trends and market changes in advance, get suited up for the marathon, and be mentally prepared for the race.

4. Find the best people for the job

This is one very important rule that is applied by most successful businesses.
Identifying the best people to perform a specific task could be a tiresome process, but it is worth every penny. Reputation is more often than not determined by your ability to deliver the best quality product or service.
You will not be able to honestly say that you are the best at what you do if you do not make use of the best people available for the job.

5. Know how fast your business grows

If you are unable to tell whether you business is growing you are flying completely blind.
It is really not that difficult to calculate growth. There are various schools of thought regarding the calculation of growth, as there are so many areas you can measure.

For the purpose of this article I will suggest that you make use of your sales figure to calculate growth.

For example:
R = South African Rand (ZAR) currency.
Net sales 2006: R100 000
Net sales 2007: R180 000

Sales growth = (Net sales 2007 – Net sales 2006) ÷ Net sales 2006
Sales growth = (R180 000 – R100 000) ÷ R100 000
= 0,8 (Multiply by 100 to get percentage)
= 80%

There are many schools of thought regarding growth ratios. I believe that there is only one growth figure that really rings my bell, and that figure is called PROFIT.
I recommend that you find the growth ratio that speaks to your business's unique circumstances and requirements.

It is generally excepted that a business that shows a growth rate less than 10% per year is more predictable, and allow more time and space for “preparation”.
If your business grows by more than 10% (The double digit rule) per year you might find yourself in a difficult situation if you don't have the right support systems and business processes in place.

Interesting fact:

If your business is growing at a percentage rate, lower than the current inflation rate, your business is not growing at all.