Growth is the goal for almost every business, whether big or small. However, what if your business is growing too fast and there’s too much work to handle?
Excessive business can either slow down your growth or improve it. If you want to achieve the latter, learning how to manage sudden bursts of work is essential.
Here’s how you can do that:
1. Prioritize
Determine the most critical tasks at hand and focus on that first bunch before moving on to the jobs that can wait for a little while longer. By doing this, you make sure that everything is done on time, and no one is getting sidetracked with low-priority tasks.
2. Hire temps
Temporary work agencies provide businesses with the opportunity to hire people to fill out specific roles in their company. Hiring temp workers instead of regular employees can offer the following advantages:
- You can find highly skilled temporary workers who are perfect for the specific job you need to be done
- Training costs are kept at a minimal or none at all
- You can save costs on benefits that are not required for temporary workers
- Temporary work can be scheduled during the busiest seasons
- You can offer permanent positions to temporary workers and save on the overall cost of filling out the positions
3. Subcontract work
If the nature of your business can involve subcontracting work to other companies, you might want to consider it when you have too much work but don’t want to disappoint a client. Keep in mind that the subcontractor will receive most of the fee, but you won’t lose the relationship with your customer.
4. Coach your employees
When times get tough, it’s your employees that will help your business stay on top of the workload. Make sure you keep them level-headed and motivated. Give individual coaching sessions to employees if necessary.
Give credit where credit is due, and remember to provide constructive criticism for your staff. When things start going back to normal, don’t forget to show your appreciation for their hard work.
5. Say no
If there is already too much to handle, don’t take on any new commitments for now. It may be gut-wrenching to say no to a potential client, but sacrificing your current clients’ business is much worse. Try referring them to your colleagues instead, or if you really want to take them on, ask if they can settle for a delayed deadline.
6. Raise your prices
An advantage of getting too much business is you have a good reason to raise your prices. Do this with new clients and lower-priority clients first; you don’t want to lose any loyal customers if you raise prices on them suddenly.
7. Expand
Experiencing too much business constantly (and not just seasonally) is a good sign that it’s time to expand your business. There are risks involved with expanding, but you can easily calculate them to make sure you come out on top. After all, one of the best effects of too much business is growing and you shouldn’t ignore an opportunity when it falls on your lap.
When experiencing a business boom, these are the things you can do to manage it well. If you do things right and prevent major problems from arising, too much business can transform into definitive growth.
