6 Strategies to Counter Business Growth Risks
As a business owner, if you feel like your growth has been inconsistent, you’re not alone. However, there are several strategies you can use to mitigate risks and achieve sustainable growth.
While you may have little control over external factors that affect business growth, there are many levers you can control to reduce risks.
📌 Diversify Your Revenue Streams. Over-dependence on one product, service, or customer can put your business at risk. However, diversifying too early can also be detrimental. So, timing is key.
📌 Build a Quality Team. Investing in hiring and training the right people, providing them with the necessary resources and tools, and letting them do their job is critical for a successful scale-up and exit. Working towards a business that operates without you is essential.
📌 Strategic Partnerships. Finding the right people to partner with can drive inorganic growth in your business. Identify bottlenecks and obstacles, then bring in the people who can bridge these gaps and remove any obstacles.
📌 Know Your Audience. Be relentless in providing your customer with what they want, even if they don’t know they want it until you offer it. This includes analysing trends, monitoring feedback, and keeping an eye on your competitors.
📌 Contingency Planning. Natural disasters, wars, recessions, and pandemic are not black swan events. Managing risks by having a risk register and a simple contingency plan that gets updated on a quarterly basis, mitigates some degree of business risk. Contingency plans may include building up cash reserves, diversifying suppliers, or creating a more flexible workforce.
📌 Innovate. Standing still is dangerous for any business. Be open to change and encourage your team to think creatively and take calculated risks regularly. Making small ‘investment bets’ that do not risk your business significantly will reduce your chances of becoming obsolete or taking much larger risks down the line.
