It’s often assumed that the goal of a business is to grow in terms of revenue. You might have the unspoken assumption that it’s the goal for your business. But is it actually what you want? This might sound like a daft question but bear with me for a minute, because it might be counterintuitive…

In many businesses, particularly creative ones, as the business grows, you get further and further away from the thing that you actually like doing (and often your core skill). It’s really visible in architecture, where the higher up the firm you progress, the less actual architecture you end up doing and the more prospecting, contract management and people management you do. In addition to this, the harder it is to retain control of the output – and this is what adds complexity to the question.

In a small firm, it’s easy to stay on top of the quality of the output; you can personally check everything and ensure that your standards are met. Creatives often feel the need to micro-manage, whilst this can sometimes help, it’s usually counter productive as the business grows. Beyond a certain point, it becomes impossible to be everywhere at once – continuing this attitude will result in a reduction of both your effectiveness and your team’s productivity. 

The question then becomes, is this what you actually want? Too often growth and success are viewed to be the same thing, it’s not always the case. To grow your business and be successful once you reach this point you’re going to have to add systems and processes, and additional layers of management. Critically, you’re going to have to take a step back and delegate – really delegate though, let go and allow people to make mistakes. It’s frustrating, and clients are going to be let down occasionally, but this is how you are going to build a larger firm. It’s no coincidence that as businesses grow, they often experience a period of their status declining, their past reputation for being excellent in terms of customer service and execution being replaced for a tendency to sloppiness and inconsistency. It’s worth devoting some time to considering if this is where you want to go, and if so, how you’re going to manage the inevitable difficulties of delegation and management without suffering too many stumbles along the way.

Alternatively, if you decide that you want to remain at the same size but achieve more with the same capacity there are ways to achieve this. Careful allocation of skills and resources and a greater focus on profitability rather than revenue can help you here. With your attention on quality, speed and efficiency, rather than outright growth, it should be possible to raise prices and/or find clients who are a better fit for your business. Bringing on clients who are closer aligned to your expertise can increase profitability without additional headcount.

So, what does success mean for you? How can you structure your business to reflect that vision? Once you have certainty on where you want to get to, you can put together a plan for how to get there. If you need any help with this or just want someone to bounce ideas off, drop me a line.

 nathan@nbstrategy.co.uk.