6 Personal Mistakes I Made During My Company’s Rapid Growth

My first business, Pure SEO, has grown rapidly almost every year since its inception in 2009. However, rapid growth does not necessarily reflect a well-oiled, efficient organisation.
On the contrary, growth will strain your systems and test your limits, challenging you as never before, and that growth can stall if you don’t adapt.
Larry Bossidy, the American author and retired businessman, summed it up this way:

“An environment of fast growth can cover a multitude of sins, but an era of slow growth will magnify every shortcoming of every person in the business, especially the leaders.”
This is a lesson that many business owners learn the hard way and I’m no different. Here are six lessons I’ve learned as my business has grown.

1. Hiring Won’t Solve Your Business’s Inefficiency.

As a business scales, it’s easy to shore up inefficiencies and other problems by simply hiring more people. Hiring addresses the problem of inefficiency but doesn’t solve it. As business growth slows, as it inevitably will, a bloated workforce combined with undiagnosed issues can erode profitability very quickly. In fact, inefficiency will become a proportionately larger problem the more your business grows, so front up and fix the faults early.

2. Implementing Systems and Improving Processes are Valuable Investments.

Selecting and implementing systems can be expensive in terms of both time and capital. We grow accustomed to what we already have in place and see changes as risky and disruptive, even as those systems start showing cracks in their scalability.

Some systems are well suited for smaller businesses, some for larger businesses, and some for growing businesses, but rarely are they ideal for all three. As your business grows, you need to be willing to acknowledge the evolving challenges you face and adapt, even when that means embracing fundamental changes to your business’s ecosystem.

3. Be Wary of the Hot Hand Fallacy.

Business growth is both thrilling and encouraging; it’s always a rush to see your business thrive. However, it’s easy to become overconfident and buy into the hype that your business growth is unstoppable.

The hot hand fallacy often refers to basketball players who are still throwing up shots long after their streak has ended. While your business grows, it’s important to continue planning for a potential downturn. Every business misses a few shots eventually.

4. Keep Marketing Your Business.

A strong brand may benefit from a regular stream of inbound leads and referrals, fuelling rapid growth. When word-of-mouth is delivering, even in a competitive market, it’s easy to think that marketing is an investment you can do without. I’ve learned that it’s more important than ever to invest in marketing when you’re experiencing rapid growth. Margins tend to be tighter in businesses that are scaling quickly, so open as many pipelines as possible to generate leads in case one of them dries up.

5. Take Care of Yourself.

People often don’t realise the time and effort it takes to build a high-growth company. You must be a bit obsessive at times and rarely get a chance to switch off. Being constantly tuned in for so long can impact both your physical and mental health, as well as your personal life, especially when you’re putting out fires on multiple fronts. Dedicate some time in your schedule to what’s important outside of work.

6. Value the Vision.

As a leader, you have a vision and a laser focus on realising it, but just because you live and breathe that vision doesn’t mean those around you fully understand or appreciate it.

This is especially true when your business starts to grow. You’ll see new members joining your team who weren’t with you from the beginning, who may not necessarily understand the hard work and heartache you’ve put in to get the business to this point. That’s why it’s important to continue communicating your vision to the people you work with. It may seem repetitive to you, but it won’t be for many others, and the effect on morale and productivity can be palpable.

There’s a Japanese term, “kaizen,” which means continuous improvement involving everyone in an organisation. I love this philosophy. It cultivates a culture that iteratively fixes problems as they occur, minimising the risk of the wheels falling off just as your business is really picking up speed.

You’re going to learn many lessons as your business grows, and some of them you’ll learn the hard way. But, with an adaptable mindset and enough commitment, you’ll have a great opportunity to translate those lessons into sustainable success.