Things That Are Getting In The Way Of You Growing Your Business (& What To Do About Them)
September 15, 2025
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Growing locations, markets, or sales numbers is common practice, meaning that expansion will become a goal for almost every business at some point. But some serious issues can get in the way of success when it comes to growing your business. The good news is that you can read about them and how to deal with them below.
Key Takeaways on Business Growth Obstacles
- Insufficient Planning: A successful expansion hinges on having a clear, detailed, step-by-step plan. It's vital to regularly compare your progress against this plan and make adjustments as needed to stay on track.
- Poor Customer Service: During growth, customer service quality can dip due to increased strain. To prevent losing customers, prioritise quick responses, train staff in conflict resolution, and actively use customer feedback to improve.
- Tax and Compliance Issues: Failing to manage taxes properly can result in penalties and make it difficult to secure funding for expansion. Using professional bookkeeping services ensures compliance and maintains accurate financial records.
- Inexperienced Management: Rapid growth can create a leadership vacuum. Counter this by investing in training for current managers and implementing an effective recruitment process to hire experienced leaders.
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START NOWNot Enough Planning
Expansions are incredibly complicated things, and they need to be managed just right in order for them to succeed. Unfortunately, if you fail to plan for every eventuality comprehensively, you can endanger the success of the entire process.
With this in mind, clarity when planning for an expansion is vital. This means you need clear step-by-step plans on what you are going to do, as well as how you are going to do it. These plans also need to be regularly compared to the actual progress being made, as well as adjusted when necessary.
Poor Customer Service
Another thing that can get in the way of successful expansion is poor customer service. If you're offering poor customer service, you will end up losing customers, and reviews and recommendations can even put off other potential customers. Unfortunately, all customer service can occur during a business expansion because of the additional strain on your business's resources and employees.
To that end is very important that you put things in place, allowing customer service to be a high quality throughout the expansion process. One way of doing this is to prioritise responding to customer queries, including complaints, quickly. Another is to invest in training for all staff that covers how to listen, emphasise and resolve issues for your customers. Lastly, no matter what stage of expansion you are at, making sure that you actively listen to the feedback your customers are providing and make changes in line with it should help prevent you from losing customers due to poor customer service.
Tax Issues
Issues with tax and compliance can very much put the success of your expansion at risk. This is because missing tax deadlines means penalties, and having bad records will make it harder to get the financial funding you need for your expansion.
The good news is you can avoid these kinds of tax issues by making sure you work with A professional bookkeeping team that properly understands the tax system. Additionally, bookkeepers can help you to keep proper records, which will make applying for loans for your expansion a much easier process.
Lack of Experienced Management
Often, when a business expands rapidly vacuum within management is created. This can get in the way of successfully growing your business because it leaves you without the management and leadership you need for your business to thrive.
The way to avoid this kind of problem is to ensure consistent investment in training and mentoring for your managers. Also, prioritising an effective recruitment process that seeks out experienced managers should help in this case.
FAQs for Growing Your Business
What is a common planning mistake when expanding a business?
A frequent error is failing to create a comprehensive, step-by-step plan. Without a clear strategy that is regularly reviewed and adjusted, the entire expansion process can be put at risk.
How can I maintain good customer service during a period of growth?
Focus on three key areas: ensure you respond to all customer queries and complaints quickly, invest in training your staff on how to listen and resolve issues effectively, and consistently act on the feedback you receive from your customers.
Why are tax issues a major obstacle to business growth?
Tax problems can lead to significant financial penalties for missed deadlines. Furthermore, poor financial records, which often accompany tax issues, can make it much more difficult to secure the loans and funding needed for a successful expansion.
What should I do if my management team is struggling to keep up with rapid growth?
It's important to address this proactively. Invest in continuous training and mentoring for your current managers to build their skills. At the same time, prioritise recruiting experienced managers from outside the company to fill any leadership gaps.
How does a proper business setup help with future growth?
Starting with a solid legal and financial foundation, like correctly registering your company with a service like Storific, is essential. It prevents future compliance issues and makes processes like securing funding much smoother when you decide to expand.
