An office move is usually the first sign a business is preparing itself for growth, which was the motivation for our move. My recent experience leads me to what I want to talk about, which is growth, what to expect, and things to ensure a successful growth strategy.

In all my years of working with small business, I have read many an article, and assisted clients with growth strategies. It is however, not until you do it yourself, that you can truly understand what is involved. Aside from the emotional strain it can put on you as a business owner, there is of course the financial pressure that can catch a lot of business owners by surprise. Growth is costly, and can often lead to the demise of a small business.

This process is one small business owners generally have a hard time grasping. How can my business be in a status of growth and also at a high risk of failure at the same time? It’s difficult to wrap your head around, but is of vital importance to understand how to the two can coincide working against one another. Let me explain why this this situation arises.

Growth takes time and money. Unfortunately, the growth usually comes after the investment you need to make to make it happen in the first place. Investment of course, costs money, with the return coming in a short time (or so you hope) after. You need to, however, stay alive during that lag time between ‘Investment’ and ‘Growth’.

Following is a bullet point of expenses you can expect to incur with a move:

• Removalist expenses
• Down-time associated with a move; such as packing and setting up new office
• New/upgrades to office furniture
• General repairs or upgrades to new office (adding new electrical points, fitout, etc)
• Increase of insurance premiums to cover new facility and equipment
• General increase in overheads associated with a bigger office (including rent, electricity, cleaning, etc)
• Deposits that need to be paid on rental, electricity, etc
• Phone line connection fees
• Technician Fees
• Mail forwarding costs
• Cleaning of the old office
• Upgrades to Computer equipment
• Legal fees pertaining to review of lease documents, etc
• Upgrades to licences to accommodate additional users relating to software

Additionally, there is the cost of employing people that should that be a part of your growth strategy:

• Employment costs:  Increase in wages, superannuation, work cover, etc
• Recruitment costs: These can be very costly whether you do it yourself or outsource the process
• Training costs: The cost of training can take the form of actual training course fees, or downtime of other
  employees as they train new employees
• Legal or HR costs: Associated with getting specialist advice (which I highly recommend!)
  Induction Process costs: the time associate with inducting a new employee

This by no means is an exhaustive list. Rather, these specific expense s are the ones often overlooked when planning for growth. From my experience, the keys to ensuring successful growth include the following:

1. Plan for it! Prepare or update your business plan to reflect your growth strategy, including new targets and strategies. A good business plan should not be underestimated. It provides the route your business will take and how to get there.
2. Budget for it! A budget is an integral part of any good business plan. It will take into account the above mentioned expenses, and many more. It will allow you to assess your turnover targets in relation to what it is going to cost you to hit them, and whether the growth strategy is achievable.
3. Manage your Cashflow! Your budget needs to be adjusted to reflect a cashflow position (on a weekly basis) to ensure you have plans in place to get through the strain that growth can put on your business’ cashflow. As mentioned earlier, your expense will increase before your turnover. If you don’t have the cash to get you through that, you will find it difficult to survive.