Growth Without the Financial Pain – Helping to Grow Your Business on a Limited Budget
You know when your business is ready to grow, but you also know that it can mean a financial risk.
It’s a common catch-22 situation for a business owner. You want to grow, everything is telling you to do it, but at the same time, there seems to be a list of reasons not to do it. Not the least of these is the cost of growth.
The pressure to grow meets the cost of growth
There comes a point for most growing businesses when things start to feel a bit too busy. There are more clients on the books or customers coming through the door, and that creates more opportunities. It also often means there are not enough hours in the day to service the business. At this stage, every business leader starts to recognise the signs of the potential for growth, and naturally, they turn to the option of scaling their company. However, this is actually a very sensitive moment in the life of a business, and, sadly, a mistake here can be financially devastating.
Scaling your business is both an opportunity and potentially a trap. Do you hire a full-time team member and move to a bigger office? Should you invest in new tools or new systems? How much will all this cost, and is it sustainable?
The leap forward needs to be funded and supplied, but unless you have a guaranteed income to support that leap, it can be a dangerous move. Overextending your business too early can put strain on your cash flow, create operational problems, and even damage your reputation if the quality of your service suffers as a result.
That said, let’s face it, the reason you started your business wasn’t to shy away from a challenge, and that growth opportunity is something you need to look at when it comes along.
We can help you scale
One of the main concerns for a business looking to grow is the need for staff. The recent rise in employment costs has made this even more of a problem, and that’s before we get into the cost of recruitment and salaries, not to mention the damage a bad hire can do.
In fact, the cost of employing someone is one of the main reasons people come to us. Instead of jumping straight into traditional hiring, we can offer a flexible and affordable way to expand their capacity. A virtual assistant (VA) can offer the right level of support to ease the pressure and increase your productivity without the long-term financial commitment of a salaried employee.
Not that an employee is not going to be an option at some point. In the right circumstances, it may well be the case that a permanent staff member is the right choice. However, at the start of the growth cycle, you are more likely to need targeted support at a fixed rate. We are often sort of ‘preparing the ground’ to make a permanent member of staff a viable option by helping you grow to the stage where they become the right choice.
Avoiding the pitfalls of expanding
Many businesses run into problems when scaling because they take it for granted that growth must have a high cost. That mindset can make you rush into decisions like staff hires, software subscriptions, office upgrades and so on, only to find that the costs rise faster than the returns. In some cases, the pressure to generate revenue to “cover the costs” becomes so intense that nothing is gained financially by the expansion. Worse still, the spiralling costs can force you to back away from expansion or even push you into financial problems.
Virtual admin support offers a way around this. We ease the workload without inflating your overheads. In short, a VA gives you room to breathe. You can build gradually, test new systems, and scale your operations at a pace that makes sense for your cash flow and client base.
Yes, there is a cost to using us, but you are avoiding the ongoing costs of a salaried employee, and there’s no need to cover National Insurance, holiday pay, or provide office space and equipment. From day one, you’re saving money while gaining specific support where you need it.
Real world and specific skills
When it comes right down to it, as the business owner you have no choice but to become a jack of all trades at some point. In the early days, in particular, you need to be able to adapt to whatever comes along. At the point of expansion, though, you are no longer at that stage.
One of the biggest boosts to your expansion plans may well be to get rid of some, or all, of those additional tasks you had to deal with during your initial growth. Which is why we bring a wide range of experience and skills to the table. Instead of looking for several different people to relieve you of the burden of a range of admin tasks, you can look to a single source to help you. One payment for a VA will cover a range of different needs and free you up to get on with expanding your business.
Do more by doing less, and the cost of ‘you’
Working with a virtual assistant allows you to streamline your operations, reduce the risk of burnout, and maintain the quality your customers expect. Just as importantly, it puts you in control of your own pace of growth. If circumstances change, you can change with them. You can choose what and when to delegate and, in doing so, control what your growth will cost your business. Rather than being driven by the next must do task, you are in control of how things run and what they cost.
When it comes to costs, there is one that often gets forgotten. Yet, in the big picture, it is just as important as anything else. That is the cost of ‘you’. You are often the most valuable tool and asset your business has, and, just like any other asset or tool, it’s vital you use it effectively or it is wasted. A good VA service will mean you get back those lost hours. All that time you spend doing admin, sending invoices, diary planning, bookkeeping and all the other delegable tasks, will become available to you again so you can get back to doing what you do best. The cost of ‘you’ is often the first casualty of growth, and sadly, it is usually the very thing that made you so successful.
Scaling your business isn’t about taking the hardest financial road; it is about making smart, sustainable, informed decisions and implementing changes. Virtual admin support is one of the most effective ways to help you take those considered steps. With the right support in place, you can allow growth to happen and, because you are not having to do everything yourself, you can also lead that build at your own pace. It is when you have the time to focus on strategy and vision, without constant financial pressure, that your growth really begins.