Do The Right Thing: Smart Growth as You Open

"When is the best time to start doing business continuity?" Best answer: along with your business plan. Second best: today.

I was pleasantly surprised when I read an Instagram update on a new bagel place in Asheville. It was a first week review by the owner. They learned a lot and were actively figuring out how to make things better for the next week.

First thing: they underproduced. They have a product lead-time of 36 hours. By the time they figured out they needed more, they had to add another day before addressing the numbers on the customer side. They tried to up the numbers the following days but those required more hands. They are working on getting more of those by hiring more people.

Second: they need to make more cream cheese. It's always great to make assumptions and gauge demand as to not waste product (and money). Reasonable assumptions are great, especially if they are slightly under and can be adjusted quickly.

Third: they are not changing their limited hours and days of operations just yet despite the demand. The owner wants to both increase the quantity (while retaining the quality) and up the efficiency as well. That sounds like there are going to be SOPs built into the bagel-making process. That's music to my ears as SOPs are a clutch basis for a business continuity plan.

I talk about growing from a secure platform to, well, pretty much everyone I speak to about business continuity when they assume or ask about their business being too small to do continuity. The problems with growth, especially when you are successful, is not planning for it beforehand. It would have been easy for the bagel store owner to think, instantly, "we're a hit, let's open more days!" What are the pitfalls of going too hard too early (and in a willy-nilly fashion instead of controlled and thoughtful)?

1) current customer service levels drop

2) new customer service levels are below what they should be

3) the product that made everyone demand your business is degraded as you are trying to make shortcuts to meet the demand.

The owner clearly cares about quality. The question I have - as a way to go deeper - is whether or not they secured back-up suppliers that offer the same quality as the primary ingredients. Second to that is has anyone even brought that up to them?

They're doing so many things right, but there is always room to do even better. A way to do that is get someone like me to ask the questions and look at it from a more long-term perspective. It's great to get a good amont of the basics right...but getting even more of them right will help you come out on top.