Business growth

[Orchard]

Is it best to let a business grow itself and be there to invest and support it as it grows or do you push growth? Some people i know in non arb related businesses who run very respectful businesses say let it grow itself but I cant see how this can happen. I have just won two contracts which I have had to work my arse off to get, so surely I have pushed growth myself.

Have people who have found themselves where they are today got there by constantly pushing their business forward in order to develop it or is it a case you find yourself in a situation where you need to expand and grow to keep up with demand?

[5 shires]

Is it best to let a business grow itself and be there to invest and support it as it grows or do you push growth? Some people i know in non arb related businesses who run very respectful businesses say let it grow itself but I cant see how this can happen. I have just won two contracts which I have had to work my arse off to get, so surely I have pushed growth myself.

Have people who have found themselves where they are today got there by constantly pushing their business forward in order to develop it or is it a case you find yourself in a situation where you need to expand and grow to keep up with demand?

 

Simple...you keep pushing and stay ahead of competition...when you work for yourself this is what you have to do until you get to the stage were you still push and generate work but not so hard...sounds like if you didn't put time and effort in getting those contracts you wouldn't have got them...cause surely they wouldn't have come to you.

[Big J]

I think sustainable business growth comes from two main areas.

 

Firstly, you have to chase work. Don't be afraid to be persistent. It's worth working hard to get a big contract as those big blocks of work will keep you busy whilst everyone else is scratching for work.

 

Secondly, focus on efficiency. If you can do the same job (or better) for a lower price, you'll always be busy. My sawmill is as orderly and tidy as it's possible to be and within the constraints of a site that I didn't design, it is as efficient as I can be. The upshot is that I can undercut just about everyone and I have 4 months of solid work booked to take me into summer.

[richy_B]

Both approaches will work. Letting the business grow organically is basically minimal advertising and not 'chasing down leads'. Perhaps just a website and sign written vehicles. Word of mouth would be a prime example of this. The longer you run the more people will find out about you.

 

I see the advantage of this being that you can concentrate on the work you have and keep the quality high.

 

Pushing growth is the opposite. Aggressive marketing campaign, regularely contact customers enquiring about work, follow up all enquiries, etc. Could be very successful but obviously takes time and you may need to spend your time working on this rather than the practical delivery of services. You take on a purely managerial role and send your teams out. The concept of working on yur business rather than in it.

[Orchard]

I will enlighten you a bit further, basically the two contracts we have won are going to require me to have regular labour whether its employed or subbed in, its cast a big question over whether my little greenmech arborist 130 is up to the job especially when there will be multiple ground crew feeding it. My chipper is only 6 months old so dont want to sell it and loose a load on it but i also dont want to be in a situation where i cant get jobs done efficiently as my chipper becomes a bottle neck. So if i go out and sell my chipper and buy a bigger machine then i will need to get finance on the upgrade cost, this is further monthly costs which will certainly hurt if i cannot sustain the work load that the chipper requires to pay for itself. This is why i ask the question do i force or let the business grow naturally? As i have been forcing it and i have put myself into a position where i now ideally need to invest to allow it to still run smoothly and efficiently where as if i hadnt i would still have been ticking along with my small but functional setup.

Any points of view from other peoples past experiences would be appreciated.

[Matthew Storrs]

Different people, different approaches dependingly ultimately what your long term goal is. There is and will always be an elemant of risk with expanding a buisness (eg your need currently to upgrade to a larger chipper/ taking on staff etc).

I would say if you can make do with your current setup and see how it goes for the time being- I have brought big kit 'for a job' in the past with the hope of it generating more work- the right work never came along and the machine sat in the yard whilst i was ticking along with the old setup- for which there is a lot to be said- less stress being the main thing, perhaps being able to pick and choose work a bit more as you don't have the same financial burden.

Iv been running my fencing buisness for 7 years now and have been lucky that i have had regular work and customers- all my spare cash has been piled back to by new kit etc, i'm not a pushy type and I don't have much desire to be much bigger (in terms of investments/kit) than i am now and personally i am quite happy with that.

[Tom D]

If you go back to the dealer that you got the chipper from they may do you a deal if you explain the situation and haggle hard, you will loose a little but thats to be expected. You should be allowing for depreciation as one of your overheads anyway. Far too many outfits forget this and end up working too cheap, you should be writing your kit down at 25%-40% per year or so. That way you will be making the profit to replace things as required. So if you have £40k worth of kit, which isn't much for an arb crew when you consider saws and climbing kit too, you need to allow £10k a year minimum for depreciation, that way you'll be able to afford to replace stuff as required. Its all tax deductible anyway.

[Scott Walker]

You could just hire a bigger chipper in for the bigger jobs?

[Richard 1234]

You've got to decide where you want to be in 10 years time.

Do you want to tick along, get big enough for 3 man team or go full on and have multiple teams out there with you standing back s bit working the office not the tools?

It depends as well on how much you are willing to risk!?

[Orchard]

You've got to decide where you want to be in 10 years time.

Do you want to tick along, get big enough for 3 man team or go full on and have multiple teams out there with you standing back s bit working the office not the tools?

It depends as well on how much you are willing to risk!?

 

 

Ideally i just want to be part of a 3 man team with subbies to make 4 or more whenever required. But I still want the capacity to cope with this amount of staff. The idea being that the 2 men can do jobs by themselves on jobs where it allows. This is when I could price jobs etc.