Accelerated growth can be a real, tangible risk for small businesses. Simon Slade highlights three ways that accelerated growth can be disastrous and how to keep your business from falling victim to these scenarios. 

In the world of business, growth is almost always a positive trend. Business owners want their companies to grow and thrive, they want sales and customer bases to increase. Getting bigger almost always means getting better.

Except for when it doesn’t.

Accelerated growth can be a real, tangible risk for small businesses. Here are three ways that accelerated growth can be disastrous and how to keep your business from falling victim to these scenarios. 

1. Disappointing Customer Service

Perhaps one of the biggest risks of accelerated growth is having so many customers that you can’t give each one the attention he/she needs. If you woke up tomorrow and your sales had doubled or tripled, is your business capable of providing stellar customer service to each and every one of those customers? If not, rapid growth could be a dangerous thing for your business.

Furthermore, as your customer base gets bigger, it can be easy to get disconnected from your customers. As your business grows, you will have less personal interactions with each of your customers, but it’s just as important to know how people are using your product or service, what they like and what they would change. This data is invaluable and can be lost in translation if your business grows too quickly. It’s important to prioritize this customer connection so you always understand how to better serve the people who are making purchases.

One way to avoid this outcome is to always have customer service manpower at hand. This means understanding the current limitations and availability of your staff—as in, who can step in and help with customer service in a pinch.

2. Disorganization

If your business expands before you have the infrastructure to handle that expansion, it’s likely that you will get disorganized. Organization is key to smooth business growth. This includes your finances, data collection, CRM systems, inventory —everything will be impacted by disorganization if your sales outpace your infrastructure through accelerated growth.

To avoid this, entrepreneurs need to consider the scalability of their operating systems, or how those systems will function under the pressure of larger volume. When deciding on a new accounting or program management software, take into account how that software will work if your sales and customer base grow rapidly. Make decisions with accelerated growth in mind and you won’t be caught off guard.

3. Mistakes in hiring or restructuring

As your business grows, leading and long-time company members will need to take on management roles and new people will need to be hired. Team expansion is a natural consequence of business growth, but when this expansion is rushed, you’re more likely to hire the wrong person for the job, putting your entire operation at risk. Accelerated growth can make a business feel like it needs to hire quickly rather than effectively, which is never a productive strategy.

In order to feel less pressured to hire quickly, try to jumpstart the process. Always keep a finger on the pulse of the hiring scene. If you know what kind of talent is out there, you can hire more quickly and efficiently when the time comes. Follow budding professionals on LinkedIn and keep an updated company profile on some hiring sites. Even if you’re just a small team, put some hiring and onboarding practices into writing so you aren’t left scrambling when your business needs new staff members.

Preparation is key

The risks of accelerated growth, while potentially harmful for your business, are also easy to prevent. It’s a matter of preparation: if your business is prepared to grow rapidly, that growth can and will be a positive turn of events. It’s when your business is unprepared that accelerated growth is risky and damaging.

As an entrepreneur, it’s your responsibility to prepare for all outcomes: from your business going bottoms-up to your customer base tripling over night.

If you have additional customer service representatives on hand, effective software and organizational systems, and you know the hiring landscape, then accelerated growth will mean just one thing for your business: success.

Simon Slade is CEO and co-founder of Affilorama, an affiliate marketing training community; SaleHoo, an online dropship and wholesale directory, co-founder of Smtp2Go, an email delivery service and investor in SwiftMed, a virtual GP clinic. Through these companies, Simon provides the education and resources for ecommerce professionals to start their own businesses and achieve occupational independence.