Has anyone happened to notice the quandary that small businesses face, particularly service companies, in regards to growth? It seems that centering your business around services can only go so far before either new services or tangible products have to be provided.

@ryrussell – What if you could have a tool already that you don’t need to develop and you can run with it. Message me and I can give you more details.

@jordanrunsit Sometimes it is simply market forces. A small professional services firm can experience growth because they have a lead in a niche. But, competition enters and acquiring business gets more difficult.

There are a host of strategies that can deal with this, from marketing strategies to ensure differentiation and higher rates, contracting skilled help to expand and contract, and certainly, adding services that complement the core business. Of course, they can expand into a different niche as well.

It is often difficult for a small services firm to add products because it takes different marketing and sales skills to close. It also adds other issues to the back office, including sales tax and other accounting issues, as well as possibly product support/customer service.

Before a small company goes into multiple directions, I personally believe they should work with a consultant to review current operations, structures, etc. to correct internal issues first. Often the barrier isn’t the market but how the firm continues to operate.

@jordanrunsit  I’ve been trying to cut down on my services and concentrate on the service I love to provide.

My take on this is to always try to “productize” your service and continually fine tune taking on more business with less expense. Ya, that’s a mouthful but part if comes down to taking the service tasks that you already do and optimize or automate them so you can do them faster. We all know that time is money so the faster and easier tasks become, the better. So, perhaps you start to write to scripts to help automate tasks. These scripts essentially become a product for your business and then you can create a portfolio of products that you offer as part of your business. Over time, some products die and others are created or enhanced. But the idea is to keep moving forward to make your core business more effective and “able” to take on more customers.

Hope that helps.

@robmitchell I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. That’s the way I feel about business. As long as there is progress, a company will continue to survive and eventually thrive.  @joanmuschampfagnani your method of cost cutting is a mentality that I wish more businesses would take. It’s like the old adage, “You have to spend money to make money.” I never understood why more small businesses didn’t utilize more entry level workers or interns. It’s a low cost way to drastically reduce the day to day busy work that managers are not able to handle. It also becomes a solid investment because an intern brings an outsider’s view to the company in order to offer fresh perspective on how business can be done, not to mention the fact that a company can spend time developing that intern into a manager at a lower cost than hiring an outside manager. I believe that by eliminating the more mundane tasks and processes in a company allows managers to focus more on innovation.

Right now, almost all of my business is built around services. Almost. 

Being in web development and design means your skill set has to match current technology, software (to a certain extent) and multiple programming languages, multiple CMS systems, popular blog platforms, seo, sem, social media outlets and exchanges, graphics, art and design, etc.

It’s about impossible to know all there is to know about everything. I don’t and do not purport to know it all. So delegation to associates is a must for some items. 

I use different tools for different skill sets and lists (simply tons of them) to keep current with who, what, how, when and where any given project is being managed, coded, designed or otherwise.

Growth is over-rated. By keeping ‘mass’ low, you keep overhead low, which puts more $$ in your pocket. Instead of widening your scope, concentrate on what you do well, make it the best it can be. Instead of a half-a**ed whole product, build a kick-a** half product that serves your clients better than your competitors. (idea and language from “Rework” by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson).

You can do much better than your competitors if you learn to delegate, find the people who know how to work on their own, pay them well, and set out to do a whole job in a grand way.