How A Small Business Expands: Why Growth Is Never Linear

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The digital world has made it much easier to run a thriving business. Social media especially has made growth an exponential thing. Algorithms on platforms like Instagram and Facebook can bring millions of clicks your way, who probably never would have found you by local search alone! 

This gives small businesses an advantage. You can build custom and expand in size within the first one to three years, a feat that used to be impossible 20 to 30 years ago. When you’ve got a good idea and you care about your audience, you’re always going to have a foothold in the current market. 

However, growth can also be a game of one step forward and two steps back. A good month can soon turn into a bad one and vice versa. You can take hits on all fronts, make excellent deals at every opportunity, and end up in a position you never thought you’d get to. 

As a business owner, this process can be very confusing! Because small business growth is never linear, and there are various reasons why. 

Competitors Can Edge Onto the Scene

Competition means there's a good sense of supply and demand in the market, so you should never take a new competitor as bad news. However, we know it’s always going to be a bit worrying when another company takes up some of the market share. 

If this is something on your mind right now, redirect your attention towards your marketing. Put on special offers, open up a loyalty program, etc., as a few promotions here and there will always be exciting and keep customers coming your way. 

But most of all, don’t panic. There’s usually enough custom to go round, even if you’re worried about being priced out of the space you’ve taken so long to cultivate. You won’t just be forgotten about, even if you have to rethink a few things to remain in place. 

Team Building Can Fall Through

It takes a good few months to hire a new employee. After all that work, you don’t want the team building to go awry. However, it can, and it often won’t even be as a result of something you can control. 

Sometimes people just don’t get along, sometimes circumstances change, sometimes your new hire becomes ill and needs time off. It’s no one’s fault, but it does mean a waste of resources and the sudden need to refill the position. 

At a time like this, you can reach out to freelancers or agencies to fill the position for a short period. It won’t cost you as much as going through hiring again, and gives you time to assess your team for the future. Either way, your internal growth has slowed, and who knows when it’ll start to move again? 

Leads Come and Go

Leads are the one thing every business needs. If you don’t have a lead on a new customer, you won’t have anyone to sell to. However, you can’t just grab any traffic off the internet and spend all your resources on trying to convert them; you need to target your leads properly. 

This process can be a mixed bag. You can follow a lead generation guide to bring more your way, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to automatically capture them. Potential customers remain that way until they head to the checkout! 

Of course, it’s quite common for a business to convert less than half of all leads they bring in per month. Some capture more, some capture less; it’s not something to compare against other businesses in the same sector. 

However, if you notice your lead conversion rate dropping, it’s time to investigate your marketing methods. Something isn’t quite right here, especially if you’ve been consistent for a long time now and have noticed a sudden drop. 

Digital Components Can Be Glitchy

When you run a website, as most small businesses do these days, you rely on the digital world to get things done. However, these digital components can be glitchy. For example, websites can experience downtime, your social media can get hacked, and you could accidentally click on a phishing link that lets a third party into your system. 

All of these things will need time and resources to deal with. Sometimes you’ll get away with just a couple hours of downtime, but sometimes you may need to get an IT professional into the system to route the hack out. And if you have any data stored anywhere, you’ll need to double check if it’s been leaked. 

Plans Simply Change

It’s unlikely you’re going to stick to your original goal throughout your entire business journey. Plans are going to change, your stance on certain things will change, and you’ll take risks you never imagined yourself taking. It’s a natural part of being human and that applies to the working world as well! 

So, if you find your original business outline looks a lot different than the one you create a year or two later, don’t panic. It doesn’t mean you lost your way. Things simply changed and you had to adapt. As long as you’re proud of how far you’ve come and you’re OK with the way your business looks today, you’ll still be on track for the growth you’ve always wanted. 

If you find an issue with any progress you made, it’s not too late to change. You can even do a review of your policies to make sure you’re doing everything as effectively as possible. 

Small business expansion is never linear. Decisions will change at the last minute, you’ll get varied results whenever you put out a marketing campaign, and the digital interface can be unreliable. 

When you add all of these factors together, sometimes you’ll win, sometimes you’ll lose. To prevent this process from getting on top of you, take each day as it comes in business. Have long term goals by all means, but also don’t be afraid to change them!

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