Rapid growth is exciting but can result in failing to meet the increasing demand. Which of course can harm your company’s hard-earned reputation. Staying as you are can lead to your competitors taking your market share. Expansion requires careful planning, a sturdy foundation and a clear strategy to ensure all targets can be met.
Assessing your needs
As your company grows, you need to review your plan of action. How you are going to expand, how it will take shape, and what are you looking to achieve? Having steps outlined will assist your path to successful expansion. If your business needs extra labour, be sure to spend time and money in this area. By using the services of a 3PL, you will benefit from a flexible workforce that specialises in supporting businesses, such as yours. On face value, this may strike you as an additional cost? However, employing a service provider who removes the pain areas, as well as the associated costs of expansion while improving processes, will give you the freedom to stick to your growth plan.
Review your KPIs
Key Performance Indicators help you understand whether you are meeting your financial commitments and whether you are making enough profit to survive.
It may be that you require additional investment to expand your company. If this is the case, then these targets will be need to be transparent and decisions will be made on the basis of your KPIs being met.
Cash Flow
Expansion can be expensive. You need to know that you can afford to do this while still maintaining the required profits to survive.
After periods of expansion, it is important to reflect on the figures and processes, to ensure that your profits are continuing at the same trajectory. Rapid expansion can lead to rapid burn out so frequent reviews and analysis is essential.
Warehouse and Logistics
With expansion comes growth. A third party 3PL can be the answer to the inevitable logistical issues that arise. As sales increase, you will need to have flexible warehousing and logistics available that can accommodate erratic and fluctuating, growing sales. This will avoid the task of having to find larger, often short-term storage and hiring expensive, additional staff. Outsourcing your warehouse will give you cost savings, create stability and help to avoid the bottlenecks that occur with company expansion.
Growing pains are a common issue among expanding companies because of the difficulties of sustaining growth, no matter what the company is or how big it is. Among the many points to consider, employing the services of a third-party warehouse can give you the freedom to concentrate on your company’s core business. Outsourcing this function can prevent logistical pain areas and cut costs in additional labour and infrastructure. Most importantly, it can ensure your customers are kept satisfied by timely deliveries, thus increasing orders and business growth.
For more information, sarah.johnson@cannonpacking.co.uk
