Do you work at a start-up? Going through some growing pains?
Last month, Pointer team members Alice and Charles went to the Operations Nation cONference in London. This is an annual event where hundreds of Operations professionals come together to share, listen and learn. This year's theme was Evolution.
Evolution comes in lots of forms. When it comes to scaling a business, so many start-ups experience growing pains at inflection points. It is important to know that you are not alone. However, there are ways to overcome these pains. As a consultancy who have worked with start-ups and scale-ups during these transition periods, as well as being a growing small business ourself, here is a list on common challenges are often faced and actions to help adapt to them:
Challenge 1) You are transitioning from wearing multiple hats to setting out more defined roles and processes.
Action ➡️ Try creating a matrix for key tasks or processes, and label who is responsible, accountable, consulted or informed. This is called a RACI chart and can offer clarity of roles and responsibilities.
Challenge 2) You have gone from speaking to your whole (small) team across the table, to establishing more structured communications as the team grows.
Action ➡️ Consider what needs to be an 'all-hands' meeting vs. a message vs. a smaller forum. Again, note any criteria down and share with the team.
Challenge 3) Your client base has grown from 3 to 100 customers, which is great for revenue but this can be difficult to manage and know how to prioritise.
Action ➡️ Explore to see if automation can help with large volume simple tasks so your people can add-value where it really matters.
At the heart of these challenges, consider the pain of the change versus staying the same. More often the pain is temporary if you can adapt, reflect and learn. See our Strategy and Change Management Service for more information on how follow us on LinkedIn for more insights.
Photo: Charles, one of our Directors, at the event.