What's the plan or a reasonable plan to grow a business?

[baileyuph]

The tendency is to do better in business to make more to  have more - what is your plan and implementation?

More employees - what type and how would the expansion be managed?  Address issues such as;
Hiring plan - rookies or trained people?  How would they be attracted to your business?
Implementation of  your plan - How will you handle the extra management/training requirements?  Someone still has to do the work - keep work flowing?

Pay plan -  For starting experience and rookies?

Physical expansion - Is your current operation a sufficient platform (big enough)? What's required?

Marketing plan - Making more money normally requires more employees, larger business, and greater volume.  Explain how you would expand, find the money to invest, and lay the business out to attract a larger volume. 

Combating the competition, whatever it is new vs rebuild; The plan has to be given thought - the business will it specialize in routine furniture reupholstery, for example, or do it all?  The plan would drive what you do to the questions above.

Isn't there a corollary between success and growing a business?  Sad to say, I don't hear much about growing a business - a business has to get better, we business people need to get better as business people, not only at sewing.  Otherwise, what happens to any small business over time will prevail.  Good business people care about these type of issues.

Seems the over riding issue here is how to grow a business, more specifically your business, if you will?

Growing can be done a step at a time, if there is no interest, then what's the complaint.

Ideas and plans for action is the quest.  Not negative attitudes.  Positive and constructive thinking.

Doyle

[byhammerandhand]

Three keys to success:
1. A quality product or service people will buy at a price you can afford to supply.

2. Sufficient capital (money)

3. Management - financial, work scheduling, marketing, sales, employee.

[SteveA]

If I was younger and my Son's were interested in this work I would have grown the business.  Skilled labor is different than most businesses that hire.
My name is at stake - I want to do the job and control everything.  It works for me but it's not my recommendation to everyone.  I like working under the radar so to speak without the obligations of a bigger business.  I enjoy doing the craft - I'd rather do my craft then run a business -
SA

[MinUph]

  Building a business takes time unless you buy an existing one that is busy. I got lucky there.

  My goals now are to give the best we can give and show people what quality is again. Some forget what it is like to have a quality job, some never saw it in the first place. I want to change that.

  There are two sides to building an employee base. My father always told me to stay small and things would be easier. While this is true it lends to no growth. Since acquiring this business and having employees I see both sides. One decorator here said to me that "feeding the beast" was no better than being a small one man shop. I don't agree anymore. With employees I can expect work to be done on a regular basis and as long as they produce more than I pay them then it's free money. It is definitely hard to find good people but I have been pretty lucky there.

  I too like to do the craft so I have my girl to do the office work. I can work the business and the craft. I must say feeding the beast is a challenge at slow times, and money is tight. But so far it has been doable. Payroll is the hard part.

  So to stay on thread, if you want to grow your business now a days it has to be different than others in a way to make you stand out. Might be high quality, fast turnarounds or something else. A smile goes a long way, along with respect for your clients. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just consistent and give them more than they expect.

  I'm at the place now that I couldn't add more people without moving. I'm not ready for that yet. Don't know if I will ever want to. But you never know.
 

[brmax]

To start you nailed it Keith, +1

Going to have to list the topic in thesis reference for studies.
Hiring: I have started in my past career both as Apprentice and as Professionally trained, In my days as hiring and as the responsible one to train future needs or just procedural task. The hunt for a trained person is your best unquestionable investment.
Weather you use many of the talents they have been instructed on, tested on, certified on and simply likes enables you to start your task learning strategy quicker and easier to complete.

Selecting an employee though trained that can follow complete instruction without stealing time on the smart phone is the task of today.

For many understanding business should have training on the proper purchase from the other end in different capacities and even products.
Training others was always a requirement when tough conversation came up, but initially a promoting factor " carrot ". It has to be sold, and above all else simply an added task in my career.

Competition?.   It is the same Morals are Morals though different to each.

Good topic

[sofadoc]

There are many upholstery shops like mine. Small one-man shops that really aren't even interested in "growing" their business.

I've got more work than I can do in a 40 hour week. I'm not interested in working more than that, and I'm most certainly not interested in taking on employees.

In reading posts on this forum, I gather that many of you are in the same age range as I am (57). Do any of you ever think about reaching a point where you would rather "scale back" than grow?

I have a hard time wrapping my brain around business plans and growth strategies as they apply to a small upholstery business.

[MinUph]

At 63 to be 64 next month I have no interest in scaling back. Maybe not going gangbusters into expansion but not scaling back. I will work probably till I drop or cant do it any more but until then I'm in.
  I should ad that I took about 10 years off of this business, and did that because I was burnt out on it.

[kodydog]

Seems the over riding issue here is how to grow a business, more specifically your business, if you will?

Growing can be done a step at a time, if there is no interest, then what's the complaint.

Ideas and plans for action is the quest.  Not negative attitudes.  Positive and constructive thinking.

Doyle

That first sentence is the key. as I read the responses here I can see many different opinions. And that is because each and every one of us are individuates with different goals and different philosophy's on what is the best plan to run a business.

If you want to grow, one step at a time is the way to do it. Multitasking is out. The hardest part of growing is what direction to go. If you can figure that one out then set a goal and go for it. Dreaming is okay but action makes it happen.

Rose and I had a really good day Saturday. Met two new customers. Really interesting people. And an old customer we hadn't heard from in two years. We had a ball catching up.

So our plan for growth. Our house is all but sold. Just waiting for closing. We'll move into our second house in High Springs and are looking at commercial property. First as an investment and second to move our business to. We will need to hire a shop helper and we know a seamstress we think will come to work for us. This is a plan we've been working on for the last two years. The future is so close we can almost touch it. But taking it one day at a time.

[Mojo]

I know that my situation is not like the rest of you. I look at our business as a manufacturer more then an upholstery or canvas shop. But I will go ahead and leave my comments here anyways in the hopes that maybe some of it will makes sense and help someone.

I stepped into this business late in life. My background is business, as a marketing analyst and then later as a consultant. I have worked with small businesses and numerous Fortune 500 companies. I have conducted customer focus groups and studies, worked on brand campaigns and have even consulted to companies on manufacturing processes. I was mentored by some very brilliant business minds over the years and most of what I learned was from the front lines of the battles rather then a book. Once I started working with the Fortune 500 clients I really got an education. This gave me a behind the scenes look into how companies manage growth. I should add that my discipline and expertise was heavily automotive based and I worked a great deal with NASCAR and the Big 3. I did work in other industries. :)

With our business I scaled everything carefully. I grew our sales slowly by carefully selecting our markets. I actually hid from certain markets and my target was always at the bottom of double digit growth per year. The best year we had was a 60 % increase in sales and that admittedly was way to much. Then 30 % and now we are around 20 % a year which I am comfortable with. A 20 % growth cycle gives you the time to respond to changes and allows you to slowly structure your operations so your not overwhelmed. We do have plans for expansion now that we have a very competent manager on board and are going to be pushing our growth up and scaling this business aggressively in the future. We have to in order to keep from losing market share. Of course this will take an investment but we are sitting in a very good financial position at the moment and can handle it. This is another reason we control our growth slowly. We want to manage our finances carefully. 

Unfortunately one of our competitors has found me on this forum and is a lurker. We are having a helluva time with them copying our marketing plans not to mention some of our techniques that we employ. We do testing of fabrics, certain sewing techniques, etc. and then release new products. They just sit back, wait and then copy our processes and marketing. Hell they even take some of our website info and place it on their own website. I know it is a sign of flattery when your competitor copies all that you do but it really pisses me off to no end. They make no new innovations with their products and just sit back and let us do all the testing and work then employ it in their production scheme.

But to get back to growth. One other thing I may mention in regards to growing your business is costs. One has to be careful in taking on debt to expand and grow. I have seen many businesses get aggressive with their growth plans and end up tanking because of the debt they took on. This is why we remain a completely debt free company. My wife does an amazing job with our books and she has a strict policy of paying cash for everything. She wants no debt on our books with the exception of real estate which will be coming soon.

We have expanded 3 times and have once again out grown our current shop. We are getting killed for space so now we are looking at getting new commercial space which will require us to take on some debt. We have no problem with this type of the debt as long as it is secured by real estate and is easily manageable.

Scaling a business can be scary. Once sales reach a certain point the hazards and obstacles increase and if growth is not managed properly it can take a company down the tubes. Quality issues come into play, meeting your market demand, an increase in employees, expansion in facilities, etc. All of these play a role and can stress a business ( and its owner ) to the point that the wheels come off.

I would like to say I have managed all of our growth from within my own mind but the truth is I have several players behind the scenes that I run ideas by. I am very calculating in everything I do and while I know I have a good business mind I still will go to some of my friends for advice. These guys DO have brilliant business brains and sit at the top of some amazingly successful companies. I wished I could take credit for all of our success but that would be telling tales. I will always run ideas by close friends in order to prevent making mistakes. I have no problem swallowing my pride. :)

Just my 2 cents worth.

Chris

[SteveA]

Chris - can you approximate the beginnings of your entry into this craft - re: size of shop and number of employees /  the size of the operation today and where to you expect to be in 5 years.   Your 2 cents is inspiring - takes guts - all the best -
SA

[RiCat]

From Chris - "Unfortunately one of our competitors has found me on this forum and is a lurker. We are having a helluva time with them copying our marketing plans not to mention some of our techniques that we employ."

This is a problem that brings to light the character makeup of a competitor. A character makeup of someone that will eventually have problems. This type of person is the type that is not ethical but what I see as what I call one being a"lover" of money. I see this on my end of things in my area - ones that does incorrect things with upholstery a customer does or does not readily recognize and is found out later on - then it comes back to bite em in ass. Cutting a corner here and there just for the sake of a few dollars and / or saving a few minutes in time. Reputation, reputation, reputation. I had a customer years ago make a statement to me that really stuck - "If you do me a good job, I will tell 20, 30 maybe 40 ppl, you screw me and I will tell 300!"

This forum, along with other forums, books and personal conversations among each other are great to make us stronger in our craft and conducting business. I have picked up some great ideas from this forum, books, viewing other ppls work, and personal conversations - while being blessed to make some great friends!

Chris, as I do, and those on the board here do, good ethics will carry the day! All we can do is keep the standard and watch when others that conduct out right plagiarism and / or bust their ass to form a bad reputation have their kingdoms collapse. I just go about doing the best I can on a daily basis and then I see matters fall where they fall.... 


Rick

[Mojo]

It is no secret that I refer customers to others when they call wanting work done that we do not specialize in. Ric is one of those. I have referred several customers to him because I know he will always do the right thing by the customer and because I know he performs professional work.

Ric and I discussed over coffee once about how much we need to watch what we post on here because of competitors who lurk. But we still help each other out and I would help any member here with anything they may need help with. Ric, Mike and I stay in touch with each other and bounce things off one another. That is the one nice thing about this forum is the friendships we have all made.

Chris

[Mojo]

Steve:

We have our 10 year anniversary coming up next year. There are 3 of us currently and then this fall we will add another stitcher. I plan on being on the road more and doing more seminars in 2016. Mindy will need an extra body here to push orders out the door.

Our current shop is small, about 650 sq ft. Very tiny for our operations. I have been wanting to build a new shop on our 3 acres here for a while but the boss lady said only when we can pay cash for the entire building. But I really would like to get commercial space separate from our home.

5 years from now ? I hope to be retired. If not then I hope I am only working a day or two a week. In regards to revenue figures, I want to be up 250 % in sales by 2020. That is our goal. It is a tall number but I truly believe we can get there. If a suitor flush with cash comes along then yes I will sell out. That is always in the back of my mind and an option I always leave on the table. I am not actively seeking a buyer but if one came along ??? " Show Me the Money ". :)

Chris

[SteveA]

Chris
Sounds like you're at a perfect point in your business.  This close to retirement.... putting all that cash into a space will take some thought.  Commercial  sounds great - I'm thinking you'd rent ?   The business will grow but so will the expenses.  I'd be looking for that crystal ball -
All there are happy - sounds like nothing is broken -

SA

[kodydog]

Cash is king. Were relocating to a small town outside of Gainesville. There are a lot of buildings that have been empty for years. The town is thriving but commercial property is still in a slump. One piece of property is a bank approved short sale. The owners are taking a bath but if we show up with cash in hand the bank will be all over it. If the property gets sold before we close on our house there are several other bargains in great locations we are looking at.

Some people will try to tell you, don't pay cash. Barrow other peoples money and put your money to work in another investment. And then take the mortgage payments off you taxes. But when you do the math this doesn't add up. It'll be hard to find an investment that pays more than the interest on you mortgage and as far as tax savings why would you pay a $1000 a month mortgage to save $100 a month in taxes. Doesn't make sense to me. Your wife is right. Pay cash.

If you have cash you can make some crazy low offers.