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| comment | | "parent_author":"",<br>"parent_permlink":"business",<br>"author":"krnel",<br>"permlink":"rapid-growth-can-bite-a-business-early-on",<br>"title":"Rapid Growth Can Bite a Business Early On (Sound Like Steemit?)",<br>"body":"<center><img src=\"http:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/11\/28\/growth-1245931_640532c3.jpg\" alt=\"growth-1245931_640532c3.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/center>\n\nBusiness growth is always a good thing,<br> right? Or is it? \n\nWe get validation and reward for our time,<br> effort and energy put into developing something that started out as an idea. \n\nWhen that idea is taken to create a business around it,<br> more business you get means more potential for growth of your business,<br> like hiring new employees,<br> and this makes the overall economy grow.\n\nBut,<br> if you grow too quick,<br> too fast,<br> and can't run your business efficiently as a result,<br> it becomes a problem. Running any business is difficult in itself,<br> and a boom to keep up with a growing customer demand can be hard to sustain.\n\nUncontrollable expansion is an easy way to go out of business.\n\nHere are some concerns to be aware of when a company or business starts up and gets rapid growth too fast and too early on. Does that sound a bit like Steemit? Maybe it does. There may be parallels.\n\n---\n- **Expenses greater than revenue**\nCashflow is needed. Expansion in sales costs more before you reap the rewards. Being forced to borrow and take on dept until you make money is not a good thing. All expenses should be paid through revenue.\n\n- **Suppliers can't keep up with demand**\nYou need products to make your products or services. That supplier might be able to meet the increased growth demands. You can end up with sales orders,<br> and no material to fill it with.\n\n- **Sales don't trump everything**\nMore sales isn't always more profit. Expenses might increase with sales,<br> especially early on with a cash flow issue. As more demand comes in you pay costs to produce until you can sell it and make a revenue. Having too much investment while sales don't grow is also an issue for the investors who demand returns.\n\n- **Slow collection**\nAs I mentioned above,<br> if you have a lot of demand to produce,<br> yet a delay in return revenue from sales,<br> this can impact your business greatly. Then you run around collecting debts to break even. If you don't collect on selling what you make,<br> then you will eventually be in the hole and out of business.\n\n- **Quick hires**\nMake sure you get the right people working for you as you grow and not have a bad apple join early.\n\n- **Overworked,<br> unhappy employees**\nProductivity will slip when more load is added to take up the slack form a rapid expansion. Overworking will lead to absent days and turnover with people leaving for a better job. This includes you being overworked. Don't end up hating what you do.\n\n- **Financial misunderstanding**\nSmaller flows,<br> ins and outs,<br> makes it easier for you to track whats going on,<br> the costs and profits as they go. When things kick up,<br> you need an accountant to handle things and point out the strengths and weaknesses of a current course.\n\n- **Quality changes to quantity**\nMore demand,<br>,<br> means more supply,<br> and faster output is a corner to cut along with quality. Quality matters to customers.\n\n- **Customers contact**\nIncreased sales can lead to trying to pump more out quicker,<br> and cutting corners which can decrease the quality of the product or service. Customer service can get overloaded and fail,<br> and despite new users coming in,<br> old users might be leaving in droves. Customer retention is part of success. Keep them happy.\n\n- **Customer complaints**\nNegative feedback needs to need to reassess your business model. Small business can focus on individual clients with care,<br> while larger businesses tend to get sloppy and cut corners.\n\n- **Customer retention**\nKeep existing customers. Give them attention when they request. Deal with complaints. Keep up the quality. Step back and stop the growth focus,<br> and look at the current existing base there is and how to make the business work from that smaller model and get it right before expanding larger. Otherwise,<br> that large expanse while things are not working right will just deflate almost as quickly as it inflated,<br> but that deflation often hits hard. \n\nSlow,<br> sustainable growth is better than quick rapid unsustainable growth. Not only for the business but in the public perception as well.\n\nKeep the current base. Have a focused product or service to know who you are targeting to retain,<br> or win back by correcting your model.\n\nPositive experiences spread through word of mouth. Businesses rise from people talking about a great product or service,<br> and other people trust their review and decide to buy as well. \n\nWhen reading the above,<br> you can think of Steemit,<br> and substitute customer with users.\n\nSteemit started off normally with a slow user accumulation,<br> then it boomed huge in July. But this rapid expansion was a bubble of hype and it deflated in the months afterward. The beta platform had some lacking features,<br> and the economic model still had issues of sustainability,<br> resulting in a disillusionment and eventual reversal of trend. The growth was fueled by hype and jumping on the [bandwagon effect (https:\/\/steemit.com\/cognitive-biases\/@krnel\/bandwagon-effect-cognitive-biases-pt-8). As the hype died,<br> so too did the rapid expansion of Steemit.\n\nThere was nothing really fueling the growth other than hype. Most of the people were not interested in Steemit,<br> it's future,<br> it's growth,<br> and ended up leaving in a reversal bandwagon effect to get off the \"sinking ship\" for some,<br> and others it was \"unpopular\" or not fun. \n\nNow that things have died down,<br> and Steemit has made some feature improvement along with much needed economic model changes,<br> the growth can be more based on people who want to get into Steemit because they like what it's about,<br> rather than just get in on the hype. Growth will resume,<br> and based on more solid foundations this time that the initial launch.\n\n---\n[[Image (https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/growth-suit-work-bank-economy-1245931\/) \n[References: [1 (http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/sageworks\/2014\/08\/10\/five-hazards-of-growing-a-business-quickly\/2\/#41322d715008),<br> [2 (http:\/\/smartbusinesstrends.com\/8-signs-your-business-is-growing-too-fast\/),<br>[3 (https:\/\/www.americanexpress.com\/us\/small-business\/openforum\/articles\/business-growing-pains-7-ways-rapid-growth-can-kill-your-business\/) \n\n----\n#### Thank you for your time and attention! I appreciate the knowledge reaching more people. Take care. Peace.\n\n<center><img src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/LwhouOq.gif\" \/><img src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/X7bllkJ.png\" \/> <strong>Payout Selected<\/strong><\/center>\n\n---\nIf you appreciate and value the content,<br> please consider:\nUpvoting <img src=\"https:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/08\/30\/upvote91a69.png\" alt=\"upvote91a69.png\" \/> ,<br> Sharing <img src=\"https:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/08\/30\/share2195b.png\" alt=\"share2195b.png\" \/> **and** Reblogging <img src=\"https:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/09\/19\/reblog33b5f.png\" alt=\"reblog33b5f.png\" \/> **below**.\n\n[![Follow (https:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/08\/30\/follow2be5e.png) (https:\/\/steemit.com\/@krnel) me for more content to come!\n\n---\n@krnel\n2016-11-28,<br> 10:25am",<br>"json_metadata":" \"tags\":[\"business\",<br>\"economy\",<br>\"growth\",<br>\"money\",<br>\"steemit\" ,<br>\"users\":[\"krnel\" ,<br>\"image\":[\"http:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/11\/28\/growth-1245931_640532c3.jpg\",<br>\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/LwhouOq.gif\",<br>\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/X7bllkJ.png\",<br>\"https:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/08\/30\/upvote91a69.png\",<br>\"https:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/08\/30\/share2195b.png\",<br>\"https:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/09\/19\/reblog33b5f.png\",<br>\"https:\/\/www.steemimg.com\/images\/2016\/08\/30\/follow2be5e.png\" ,<br>\"links\":[\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/cognitive-biases\/@krnel\/bandwagon-effect-cognitive-biases-pt-8\",<br>\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/growth-suit-work-bank-economy-1245931\/\",<br>\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/sageworks\/2014\/08\/10\/five-hazards-of-growing-a-business-quickly\/2\/#41322d715008\",<br>\"http:\/\/smartbusinesstrends.com\/8-signs-your-business-is-growing-too-fast\/\",<br>\"https:\/\/www.americanexpress.com\/us\/small-business\/openforum\/articles\/business-growing-pains-7-ways-rapid-growth-can-kill-your-business\/\",<br>\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/@krnel\" ,<br>\"app\":\"steemit\/0.1\",<br>\"format\":\"markdown\" " | | comment_options | "author":"krnel",
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