Growing Your Business in Omaha, NE

Starting a business is the first of many challenges that you’ll face in your role as a business owner.  Once you begin establishing yourself in the marketplace and growing your customer base, you’ll need to make strategic decisions as your business expands with time.  Whether you’re a new or seasoned entrepreneur, it’s essential to be aware of the resources available to help you successfully grow your business and take it to the next level.

When establishing a sound financial plan that accommodates for the growth of your business, it’s critical to utilize resources that will help guide you through each change or milestone as it occurs as well as providing you helpful insights so that you can always be thinking one step (or five steps) ahead.

“Mutual 1st Federal Credit Union believes a business plan is a roadmap that is essential for business success,” emphasizes Tristan Zachary of Mutual 1st Federal Credit Union (www.mutualfirst.com) .  “We have offerings for businesses at every stage of their growth and development. Business owners who have set forth the goal to grow their business must first assess what stage of development they find themselves; needs are most critical in times of transition.  Our Entrepreneur Checking account is for small or young businesses with low activity. It’s a hassle-free account that will allow the entrepreneur to take control of their finances at a very low cost so they can put more of their capital towards growing the business. We offer a Partner Plus Checking account for more established business clients, which is designed to handle heavier account activity. Members with this account receive unlimited transactions and earn dividends that could offset their monthly fee, leaving their money free to invest right back into their business.  Additionally, we offer a Statement Savings account that allows business owners to grow their balance by earning quarterly dividends to maximize the bottom line while still maintaining liquidity.

The key to growing your business is planning ahead and knowing what you would like to achieve. It’s important that business owners remember that cash flow is the driving force behind any business. Business owners must protect themselves and their businesses by regularly identifying, managing and evaluating key business risks.”

With growth comes doing business with more customers and therefore, more financial transactions.  Consumers are no longer carrying checks or even cash for that matter so a growing business needs to be able to meet their consumers’ payment expectations by accepting debit, credit, and gift card payments.  There’s also plenty of new and enhanced technology to take advantage of when it comes to monetary exchange as well as other aspects of managing your day-to-day operations, but you’ll need to know the specifics in order to know what the best fit would be for your business.  It’s extremely important to partner with experienced professionals who can get you set up with the optimal merchant payment system and who will also guide you through training of its features and capabilities so that you can use it to your business’s full advantage as you continue to grow.

“American Payment System’s goal is to help our merchants grow their businesses,” emphasizes Jim Barnes, owner of American Payment Systems (www.americanpaymentsystems.com).  “For all of the business owners out there, APS wants you to do what you do best, whatever that may be, and let us do what we do best for you–merchant card processing.  It’s a priority for us to help you grow your business; the more you grow, the more we grow.  In an industry that is full of scammers, it is important to find a company that you trust for your processing.  It is easy to find yourself in contracts with hidden fees and high rates, and it is these companies that give business owners a negative impression of the processing industry.  In today’s day and age the plastic card industry is growing rapidly, so it is imperative for business owners to educate themselves.  American Payment Systems also offers free consulting on competitor’s quotes or existing statements to help merchants understand what they are paying for and where their money is going.

Moreover, there are hundreds of different types of equipment available. American Payment systems is always seeking out new partnerships with equipment providers in order to offer our merchants a wide variety of options so that we can choose the one that best fits their company.  There are Point of Sale systems with inventory and employee scheduling features, or the best fit for your business could be something as simple as accepting payments on your smartphone.  The possibilities are endless, and APS is here to make accepting payments as simple and easy as possible for the merchant at a price that won’t break the bank!”

Whether it’s keeping your finances in order, incorporating technology or making smart hiring choices, just as a few prime examples, it’s essential to be smart and thoughtful during the process of growing your team and your business. Sam Nelson, associate director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and assistant professor of practice in management at the College of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (cba.unl.edu), explains, “At UNL, we have access to many resources which can be of great help to those who are planning for the growth of their business, such as:

• Excellent faculty at the College of Business Administration and other colleges at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who produce research on the various aspects of growing a firm.

• Top students in various disciplines who have worked with faculty and will be great assets to any company in helping to grow their business, regardless of the industry.

• The Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a cooperative effort involving government and education based service organizations, provides business and technical services to manufacturers and processors throughout the State of Nebraska. They are currently working with eight companies that are expanding their businesses internationally and will have applications for other companies to work with them.

Now more than ever there is an incredible amount of data available, particularly on consumer preferences and other demographic trends. The companies that are currently successful in growing their business are very thorough at gathering the right data to guide their decisions. There are a few based in Nebraska that are doing amazing things in terms of gathering data and utilizing that data to guide decisions and increase their overall profit margins. Another key trend is the three distinct generations that currently exist in the workforce. We currently have Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials all in the same organization trying to make decisions collectively. The companies that are successful embrace this and use it to their advantage.

You’ll want to consider the following three things as you plan for and adjust to the growth of your business:

1. Ensure that you know ‘why’ you are growing. – Growth isn’t always good as it can lead to increased revenue, but reduced margins. Ensure that the growth provides either a strategic advantage or increases your margins; otherwise it probably is not in the company’s best interest. Too often growth is simply driven by the desire to get bigger and have a bigger slice of the pie and this is not sufficient justification.

2. Expect growing pains. – Organizations often mimic natural organisms and with growth comes pain. Understand it and respond to it correctly.

3. Ensure that you manage your culture as you grow.  – There is often an energy and passion instilled in companies when they are small. However, it is a significant challenge to keep that energy and passion from being lost as a company grows. The key is to accept that some things are impossible to maintain with growth (i.e. if a company grows from 10 people to 100 people it is hard for a founder to keep the same type of relationship she had with the initial employees).  On the flip side, there are many things companies can do to keep a ‘family’ culture that rewards creativity and competitiveness it will just look different when you have a larger company.

Many of the entrepreneurs I’ve talked to have stated that growing a business was one of the most rewarding things they have ever done. It is a very challenging and rewarding journey. Many have stated that the key to success when growing a business is to find the proper balance between patience and taking action. You must consistently drive the business forward, while remaining patient for the results to materialize.”

You may not always need to add to your internal team to accommodate for growth; you can also partner with businesses whose main focus is filling the gaps where you need help.  A perfect example of outsourcing as your business grows is hiring a reputable answering service to assist with your higher phone traffic.

“It can take years to earn a client but only seconds to lose one,” stresses Megan Lipert-Murphy, owner of Executive Answering Service (www.executive-answering.com).  “It’s important to maintain a high level of customer service and responsiveness even during times of growth when you’re stretched thin and busy making adjustments for transition.  Thirty years ago the primary function of an answering service was the reach someone for emergencies, but in 2015 there is so much more offered for a large variety of industries! ‘Virtual receptionists’ can save a company the overheard costs of an employee including salary, insurance, and training. Executive Answering Service offers virtual receptionists, order entry, appointment scheduling, emergency dispatch, call triage, the best customer service available, and so much more!”

Your company’s growth also has a lot to do with your visibility in the community that you do business in.  People are relationship-oriented and seek to connect on a personal and emotional level, especially when it comes to making decisions on how we spend our hard-earned dollars.  Through marketing, networking, joining professional organizations and active involvement in the community, you’ll be working towards establishing yourself in the marketplace and positioning yourself for growth with the relationships that you build along the way.

In order to get new customers in the door, they have to find out about you somehow.  It is our strong belief at Strictly Business, as we are a publication that focuses on helping our clients to “Get Known,” that people gravitate towards doing business with who they know, like and trust.  Branding isn’t just about your offerings, although they are central to your success, but it’s also about establishing yourself as a reputable source for industry knowledge and expertise in the community and whose image aligns with that of a business that people would want to build a lasting relationship with.  Getting your name out there with consistent exposure breeds that valuable familiarity along with delivering your message.  Furthermore, not only marketing your offerings but taking the opportunity to educate your audience at the same time will allow you to position yourself as a knowledgeable AND trustworthy resource.  For sustained growth to happen it’s important to continuously stay in front of your target audience and generate buzz whenever possible, which promotes top of mind awareness.  However, it’s also important to be purposeful with your exposure at the same time.  The ultimate goal is to brand your business through a consistent message across a healthy mix of different media which are powerful enough to expand your reach in the marketplace.

While you may not be completely prepared for the changes that your business will face while it continues to grow and evolve, much like a tree establishing its roots in order to grow, once you’ve got a strong foundation in place your business’s growth will happen naturally.  There are plenty of advocates and resources in the community that can help you formulate a plan that identifies your business’s unique challenges and accommodates for growth so that you stay on the track to success, no matter what the future holds.