KEEP THE LONG-TERM IN MIND WHEN INSTITUTING CHANGES

Profit growth and business expansion are two key goals for many family businesses. But in order to successfully reach your targets, growth must be controlled. If you allow undisciplined expansion, you run the risk of diluting resources, leaving projects unfinished and destroying morale.

Whether you are planning an expansion, developing a new growth strategy or looking to make changes to spark revenue growth, plan your moves carefully and continually evaluate the game plan by asking the following questions:

Growth Checklist

Is the plan financially sound? Does it fall within your core business? If not, should you proceed or do you need to change your business focus?

How will you allocate resources?

Have you arranged to provide adequate training to ensure employees have the new skills they might need?

Are you paying attention to critical aspects of the business, rather than letting the upheaval dilute your focus?

Are you continually evaluating progress to ensure that individual elements of the overall plan are completed on time? If too many projects are not complete, determine why and revise procedures appropriately.

Have you instructed managers to set priorities for staff members to keep them focused on the most important projects?

Have you clearly communicated company goals and the relevant time frame to staff members and any outside help that might be involved?

Are you keeping managers current on the status of the project and setting up procedures to maintain accountability?

Have you solicited insight from everyone who could make a valuable contribution in both evaluating the strategy and deciding if, and when, to proceed?

Have you established a contingency plan to deal with problems?

Have you ensured that all employees understand what the company does, the rationale for the changes and how they fit into the company's ultimate goals?