Should I Stay I Should I Grow Now?

Typically in business, we put an emphasis on growth.

There’s a mentality that bigger is better, and “success”=bigger projects and more employees.

To a point, I suppose this is true: Google wouldn’t be Google if they were two guys operating out of someone’s garage.

Taking on big projects and having a multi-million dollar monthly payroll certainly is a sign of prestige (and hopefully large profits).

However, as those of you who paid even marginal attention in second grade math can likely figure out, there’s a downside to this:  If payroll is $3M a month, it doesn’t take very many bad months for things to go very, very wrong.

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Lately, this has been an issue that I’ve been having to navigate on a number of fronts.

Business has been booming the last several years as the economy has heated, and in turn, offices have grown larger.

The projects have taken on a new scale.

The construction cranes have gone up, and payrolls have increased. People who once did one thing are now in charge of managing four layers of management that manage that one thing.

And, in turn, I’ve become the one people turn to when they realize that Biggie Smalls might have been right when he came out with ‘Mo Money ‘Mo Problems.

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Every day, I get to help navigate the boondoggles that come from $25M contracts, and forgotten suppliers, and heads that don’t know what the tail is doing.

I get to help right the course when profits have gotten lost in the Bermuda triangle, fix broken bows, and occasionally, dispatch life rafts.

As I do all of this, I often gain a new appreciation for how a nice, simple Chris-Craft that can do what it’s supposed to do without a fifty-person crew.

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As business owners look to the future, they’d wise to keep this in mind.

A Naval destroyer may look pretty cool, but there’s a reason we don’t have a bunch of decommissioned models being sold off to Florida retirees.

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Quite simply, before you grow, make sure that you’re answering “Should I?” and not merely “Can I?”.

Without fail, growth will require more capital than anticipated.  Every project will go over time and over budget.  Estimates will be wrong, and profit margins will be lower than anticipated (or non-existent).  There will be things come up that you don’t know how to handle, and that are beyond the purview of the resources you’ve relied on thus far.

Or, to continue the boat analogy, you’ll quickly realize that a week of sailing camp back in the fifth grade has not qualified you to captain a decommissioned Naval destroyer. Be cognizant of this before you go boat shopping, and you’ll be more likely to find a good fit.