There are various critical decision points in the life of a small business, and each one can push a business to the next level, or cripple it, depending on the decision made.
One of these decisions has to do with whether one decides to expand an existing business, or to maintain an equilibrium.
As a small business owner you will find that there are several “levels” of size that vary a lot from each other, even though the leap from one to the next seems small.
For example, moving from a sole proprietorship without having any employees to the next level, which is having at least one or more employees is a huge jump, because the skills needed to run a business with employees is quite different than those required to make a sole proprietership work if it has no employees.
Then, moving from a business with one or two employees to one employing more employees than you can reasonably manage or supervisor is the next leap. Once again, the skills you need to do this are quite different than the previous two levels.
The decision to grow your business (growing in the sense of adding personnel) is one that needs to take into account:
- your current skills
- your desire to develop your skill
- your tolerance of financial risk (expansion increases risk)
- your lifestyle preferences (owning a growing or larger business results in a rather different lifestyle than running a one person shop).
