A previous study published in the Journal of Enterprise Transformation (https://rb.gy/jbnrmo), discussed the various challenges entrepreneurs face during the growth of their businesses. Businesses most often don’t show any growth because of a lack of resources and the business owner’s low motivation.
Various ways exist to change the trajectory of a business.
- Hire experienced managers
It is vital to employ experienced managers who can successfully take the business forward on its evolutionary path. Managers play a pivotal role in providing leadership, purpose, and direction to their teams. Good managers understand how to be proactive in managing projects and creating an environment of continual growth.
Employees report higher job satisfaction when a manager can provide a stable work environment, even when the working environment change, or the workload fluctuates. This will reduce employee turnover, leading to better growth prospects.
- Realign and establish more formal structures and processes
As a business grows, it is important that the structures and processes evolve with the company. Organisational structure defines how activities are directed and provides the foundation for operating procedures within the business which aligns with its core strategies.
Employees are guided by an organisational structure that lay out the official reporting relationship that determine the company’s workflow. New positions can be added easier when a formal outline of the structure exists, while providing a flexible and ready means for growth.
An effective business design has benefits such as increased efficiency, better decision making, improved quality of goods or services, higher profits and being better prepared for challenges.
- Make your business a learning organisation
Business owners continuously need to enhance their skills and knowledge to make their business a learning organisation. Knowledge sharing and knowledge management should be given priority to encourage innovation and creativity.
A learning organisation is one that create, acquire, and transfer knowledge and then modify its behaviour to reflect the new knowledge and insights. This definition begins with a simple truth: new ideas are essential if learning is to take place.
- Use entrepreneurial capital to address problems
It is useful to differentiate between five kinds of entrepreneurial capital, namely financial, natural, produced, human, and social. All are stocks that have the capacity to produce flows of economically desirable outputs and in sustaining a competitive advantage. Entrepreneurial capital supports the business to nurture the skills needed to accomplish organisational sustainability.
Entrepreneurial capital should be used to address the problems of core competency, managerial capacity, availability of skilled workers, mobilisation and access of resources, acquisition of external financing, and environmental and competitive pressures.
Although no specific theory or factors can answer the questions around which business will grow and how they will obtain their objectives, it is safe to say that the business owner’s own motivation, aspiration, mindset, skills, experience and entrepreneurial capital all have a profound effect on the growth and success of the organisation.