What I’ve Learnt From Growing A Business Fast
This year has been enormous for me personally and professionally. At the start of the year, I decided to expand my family insurance business, Evergreen Life. For 15 years it had just been me in the trenches but I took on six new guys in very quick succession. I hired a General Manager, got some premises and then things started to break.
I grew too quickly.
These are the five lessons I’ve learned about growth:
Growth Needs to be incremental
Growing fast is possible but it needs the right systems in place. It’s better to take things slowly and scale at a manageable rate. Perhaps make one hire at a time, especially if there’s a lot of training involved. That way you get to iron out the kinks on a small scale and any problems aren’t going to be too major.
There will be chaos
With growth comes chaos. As humans, we’re wired love the familiar because it makes us feel safe. You need to hold on and push through if you want to get to the other side. But it takes enormous courage to break from what you know and tread a new path.
Get the right people on the bus and don’t be afraid to drop the wrong ones off
On the road to growth, you have to make some tough decisions. Some of the toughest involve people. I had to let a friend go, as things just weren’t working out. It was nothing personal but we just couldn’t work together. Another one of my guys quit after two weeks. The guys who moved on were both great people which made it even harder to deal with but you just have to. You can’t take it personally if your journey isn’t someone else’s journey. The decisions people make will often have nothing to do with you – so move on fast. Channel your energy into the people who are working hard and get it – the rest will either follow or leave. Either way, the problem will be resolved.
Fail fast and move forward fast
We often criticise ourselves when things go wrong and say we’ve made a mistake. A mistake isn’t the end of the world – it just means you tried something and probably realised that what you were doing before was more efficient. Move on and don’t be hard on yourself. The only time you can really call something a mistake is if you continue to go down the same path that’s not as efficient.
Money alone won’t get you through
There were two reasons I decided to grow Evergreen Life. The first was to leverage it to make more money. But the second, and more important in my view, was to make an impact. I’m absolutely passionate about helping people grow. To be able to hire and mentor new brokers in my business gives me a great sense of satisfaction. I love knowing that I can make a big difference in their lives. This has helped me push through the teething problems of growth. You need to have a very good reason to get through the pain to a place where you can enjoy the fruits of your hard work.
Be patient
Patience is so important and it’s something I’m still learning myself. If you work with a team, remember they’ll learn at their own pace. If they don’t get something straight away, it’s OK – just breathe and be patient – we’ve all been there and I’m sure many people have pulled their hair out at me over the years and still are, just ask my wife!
