Whether you’re a solo designer or part of a team, hopefully you will reach a point where your audience and sales figures are growing organically. Whether you’re using CAD or still doing everything in long-form, coping with rapid growth can challenging. While most businesses dream of rapid growth, it can cause a lot of problems if that growth is unexpected. For designers, there are some clear issues that will need to be avoided if you want to build on the reputation of your brand without risk. Here are the key areas to watch if your design company is growing faster than expected.
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Keep customers informed
The unexpected is often cause for complaint. If you’re receiving more orders than you anticipated, the temptation is often just to agree to meet those order commitments. This can create a backlog, meaning that you may not be able to keep up with demand. By keeping your customers updated about your progress and your expected deliveries and order fulfillments, you will reduce the potential for negative experiences with your company.
Outsource Wisely
All businesses have looked at outsourcing a variety of roles within their company. Outsourcing has long been a useful strategy for coping with rapid growth. For designers, there are many areas where outsourcing can be to admin, transferring your workload to others means that you can focus on your specialties.
Testing Before Building
If your projects involve printed circuit boards, it can be challenging to keep up with demand during periods of rapid growth. Using tools like the PCB design software from Altium can speed up your design process by allowing you to create and test your new circuit boards without unnecessary spending. This can help ensure that you always have the components that you need to keep your new products moving.
Never Overextend
It’s tempting to promise the world, but when you can’t match your ambitions then your business will suffer. Failing to deliver on time can cause long-term damage to your brand, which is why it’s important to remain within realistic parameters. One of the benefits of recognizing rapid growth is that you can use it to your advantage. If potential customers recognize that there is a growing demand for your product due to limited access, then your reputation for quality will only grow.
Learn From Your Mistakes
Making mistakes is an inevitable part of business. Just because something fails, it doesn’t mean that it is wasted. Simply try again with an awareness of where you made a mistake, and learn from it. If your business is growing too quickly, the urge to get as much from that growth as possible can be overwhelming. Remember to pace yourself, and if mistakes are made, look for proactive ways to resolve and learn from them. Do research on how established entrepreneurs manage their mistakes, and you can learn from those that have gone before.
Being in a design company that grows is a unique experience, and there are fewer barriers to success than ever before. Despite the potentially high numbers of competitors, modern marketing and outsourcing opportunities have made managing business growth easier than ever. With the right planning and the right mindset, your design company could be managing rapid growth in a way that promises and secures future success.
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