Hi All.
I thought today I would take the plunge and start seeking some advice to help grow my small business.
A bit about me first:
Im British born and been living in South Africa since 2012, moved over on secondment with my firm from London, but left last year to pursue my own business, which has been running for 12 months now.
I dont want to give to much away, but my business specializes in the application of a protective coating onto vehichles, to aid our customers in giving their vehichle, bike, truck whatever a new look and feel. We have also recently pushed into the corporate vehichle branding world and starting to grow that side of our business.
The business started at home last year and within a few months I was able to move us into a small workshop, shared with a larger pannel beaters and we have thrived under them, to the point now I have 3 staff and a huge social media prescense (15k Facebook followers and 11k Instagram followers)
We dont do much proactive selling, apart from the information on projects we work on where we share them on Facebook and Instagram and the work pours in from there.
We are at the point where we have to much business and are booked up 3 weeks in advance and cant take on more work, so we do need to expand, move out of our small shop into a bigger workshop, take on more staff and equipment. However having my head switched on I am always scared of failing if we were to move into a bigger workshop, increaing our overheads and not being able to cover our monthly bills.
So im here asking for advice on how I can grow.
Im not sure how to get investment into the business, or if I want to have someone investing in the business and then requiring a monthly payout or a % cut of the business.
I am also struggling with the financial side, in making sure we properly account for everything coming in and out of the business. At the moment, i use a spreadsheet showing the money coming in and the money leaving for bills on a monthly basis, so I need some advise there.
Im also struggling with the idea of bringing more people into my business, I need a strong minded workshop manager and someone to proactively go out and start selling, but im worried about placing my trust in them.
The 3 guys I currently emply are all young and eager car enthusiasts so they all love there job, but there not always focused on the main goal, however their workman ship is the highest standard in our industry and we are told by a lot of people in the industry that no one comes close to the finish and care that we put into finishing a customers car which is great.
So all in all im looking for a lot of advise.
How can I grow my small business and take it to the next level, we need to expand, we have reached the point where we cant fit any more work in to increase our monthly profits, if we were to expand, take on more staff, bigger premises, we would be able to double or triple our monthly income and profit very quickly.
So anyone else been at this turning point and able to help?
As I mentioned earlier I am British, so not so clued up on getting financing in South Africa, and other business practices and the way things work in SA, so any advice would be apprecaited.
Thanks
JP
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