Growing a newly-launched company can be challenging but also highly rewarding.
You are continually learning, and no day is ever the same.
Below is a round-up of seven things I learned while developing my agency:
1.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
One error we made early on was hiring people with little experience in the marketing industry.
Save money on employees and hopefully they will grow into the role.
That was my thought process at the time.
While this worked initially, it created problems as we took on higher caliber clients.
I found we spent too long training employees who ultimately failed to deliver the required quality.
Investing in more experienced personnel sooner rather than later is something I would recommend for all startups.
In my opinion, having employees who can hit the ground running is vital.
Be prepared to pay a little more to secure the right candidate.
The rewards will be evident as you develop your team and take your business to the next level.
Revenue was up and confidence was high.
But in hindsight, I feel we overstretched too soon.
We took on too many clients and tried to grow too quickly without having a solid foundation in place.
We simply didnt have the team to serve our clients the way we wanted to.
There was too much work, too little experience, and a lack of organization.
In my book, it is best to grow more slowly.
Communicating well externally and positioning your brand is important.
But what is often neglected is internal communications between stakeholders.
Fine-tuning internal communications is key to everything a startup does.
Improve internally and your external communications will naturally follow suit.
As a company, we experimented with various methods to enhance the way our internal communications functioned.
The best results came as we hired more experienced employees and reduced our staff turnover.
To me, its obvious that experience and stability are key to building a positive organizational culture.
A settled team is a productive and effective team.
So work on your internal comms.
Outsource work sparingly
Outsourcing was something I was reluctant to engage with at first.
Keeping all work in-house just felt right for what we wanted to achieve.
The major concern was maintaining quality and control.
But there came a point where outsourcing just made sense for certain types of projects.
I always recommend doing detailed research first before you farm out anything.
Building a trusted pool of freelancers takes time but can be well worth it.
And remember: you still want to deliver the same standard your clients expect.
Dont fall into the trap of cheaping out.
In my experience, most entry-level services do the bare minimum and provide impersonal customer support.
If you want to grow, you need people that will work closely with you.
By investing in a good accountant and law firm, I had advice on tap whenever I needed it.
Having a trusted legal firm on standby is also beneficial.
Look to build a close relationship with all your support services to maximize the advantages.
It sounds simple, but its true.
for review every quarter).
This can form the backbone of your growth strategy.
Be prepared for setbacks, at least in the short term.
And use setbacks for learning, not for despondency.
Remain flexible and agile in your strategic planning.
Revisit your strategy regularly to ensure you remain on the right track.
Story byAlex Thomas
Alex is an entrepreneur, SEO expert, and writer.
His work has been featured in many reputable publications including Entrepreneur, Business.
(show all)Alex is an entrepreneur, SEO expert, and writer.
His work has been featured in many reputable publications including Entrepreneur, Business.com, and HackerNoon.
