Small Business Column: Keeping up with your order book

Kehlan Kirwan from the Small Business Show looks at what happens when your business increases and your order book begins to grow.

Good businesses always want to be busier. From the one-man band to the 50-employee factory, being busy and getting busier means business is getter bigger.

In recent weeks; requests for interviews, press releases, video production and more have brought new found impetus to what I do. A number of months ago it seemed that blind alleys were turning into dead ends.

However, the effect of constantly knocking on doors and finding new avenues to the business has provided its rewards. There has been a real spike in workload and it is boding well for 2015.

Like any company, this means adjustments to make and planning to be done. The aspect that jumps out at me, in particular, is time management.

More demands on your time mean a full diary and a daily ‘to do’ list.

The importance of doing something as simple as making up a list saves a tremendous amount of time. Prioritising tasks and setting them out clearly has been one of the most important things that I have added to my organisational skills. Get it done and get it to the client.

Listening to clients has also been key in our upturn. Listening and exceeding expectation. In recent years, the planning of projects has changed considerably.

It is no longer a two-way street in terms of what they want and how you deliver it. You are both going in the same direction, where the ultimate goal is to get the best for your client. That means a constant conversation and a continuous evolution of how the final product ends up.

Technology has become a very important part in how companies expand and grow. From phone apps to super-fast computers, the average company has a tremendous amount of power at its fingertips. We’ve begun to provide clients with more and more video to produce media-rich interaction to their clients.

Serious advancements in video rendering technology and software has meant that technology plays a huge role in how our business gets the end product to the customer.

Another key aspect is holding on to your finances. Growth can often come in heavy bursts, which can put a drain on your finances.

Working out a financial plan also means dealing with something I’ve talked about before in this column: getting paid. Setting out a cohesive plan with clients, from the beginning, about how you expect your financial relationship to work is important.

Bear in mind that a good financial plan will help you to recycle money back into the business for equipment, technology or even new staff.

Business growth is a challenge, but one that can be embraced and set the foundations for further growth in the future.