Growing Pains of Small Business: The Biggest Barriers to Business Growth

It is always the dream of every business owner to
achieve success in his or her business venture. The entrepreneurial spirit of
someday owning a big and growing business can never be extinguished unless if
you are one of the many small businesses that end up in business
failures every year. The market is tough these days with the barriers of
business growth seem to constrict every chances of success. Entrepreneurs work
hard to make their business grow but achieving success can be quite difficult,
as the Australian Bureau of Statistics would suggest. The agency noted that only
4% of all businesses in the country are employing more than 20 personnel and
80% with 5 employees or less. If you want to jumpstart your business ambitions,
you have to start from the beginning by searching franchise opportunities and business for sale in Odusee .

There is a prevailing urban myth for small business
owners in Australia wherein bigger businesses have more problems than small
startups. The truth of the matter is that the size of the business is not the
issue because not all business owners undergo the same challenges and rigours
of business management. The strains and pressures of managing a growing
business is the real reason why the top
10 business failures in the country happen.

Developed in 1972 by noted Harvard Business School
professor Larry Greiner, the business model explains the barriers thateventually cause financial strain and organisational inefficiency in any small
business. Here are the five biggest roadblocks to business growth and success:

During the early stages of a business startup ,
there is a constant need for owners to participate in every aspect of business
management and operations. During the creative stage, problems will occur when
the reliance and dependence on the owner’s role and participation becomes
unsustainable. In this case, a leadership crisis will eventually undermine the
entire process of business growth. It is necessary for someone to take charge
of the situation and delegate specific responsibilities to the employees so that
the owner can do other things that would help business growth.

Oftentimes, business
strategy failures are caused by bad judgment, lack of business sense, and
ineffective leadership style. In the directive stage, the business owner takes
charge and responsibility for all the business decisions. Unfortunately, a
growing company would mean that decision-making responsibilities would be even
greater.

In order to relieve the pressures and challenges of
managing a growing business, owners tend to delegate specific responsibilities
and roles. Most small
business failures happen when the owner and management fail to control all
aspects of business operations. Lack of coordination and teamwork are some of
the factors that may weaken the business structure. If the efforts were
uncoordinated then the business would fail.

As businesses grow and evolve, the management
becomes more bureaucratic. Business practices become more complicated and
unwieldy thereby preventing small businesses from reaching their full
potential. In fact, statistics
of small business failures are quite significant considering the fact that
bureaucratic red tape constricts business activities and market expansion. In
this way, it is important to restructure such an organisation into something
more collaborative.

Greiner contended that it is inevitable for small
businesses to achieve the potential to grow and become successful. Once hitting
some serious roadblocks along the way, some businesses even regress and fall
back to where it started. Business
failures in Australia are bound to happen when owners are not prepared to
overcome serious business barriers they encounter.