Alright, it’s been a while, but I’m back. No excuses, but we have been wide open. We have added six new people to the guHRoo and Underdog Digital teams in the last 30 days. This is a pretty substantial uptick for our team bringing us over 20 people combined. Anyhow, thanks for bearing with me and I am excited to share some updates.
I have thought about sharing our growth from behind the scenes in the newsletter. Would you be interested in that? If so, send me a note at matt@guhroo.co. Otherwise, we will just keep sharing some of the tips we have learned to continue to grow and scale.
This week I want to talk about overcoming the lack of resources you have as a small business owner. There is no shortage of challenges that you face on a daily basis. But one of the most significant challenges is often the lack of resources. When you’re operating with limited funds, it can be difficult to make the investments you need to take your business to the next level.
You may find yourself struggling to hire the right talent or invest in marketing and advertising campaigns that could bring in new customers. You may be forced to make tough choices about where to allocate your limited resources, often sacrificing growth opportunities in the process.
And when you’re constantly fighting to keep your head above water, it’s easy to feel like you’re stuck in a never-ending cycle of limited growth and diminished returns. But here’s the thing: you don’t have to accept this reality.
There are three ways I have found we can overcome a lack of resources to build a thriving, sustainable business. This is what we have done at our companies over the last nine years.
By leveraging technology, prioritizing spending, and collaborating with others, we have found these ways help us to make the most of our limited resources and achieve our growth goals.
Leverage technology: Technology can be a powerful tool for small businesses that are operating with limited resources. You can automate tasks, streamline operations, and reach customers more effectively.
How this works for us: we try to automate EVERYTHING. We use over 40 pieces of software (which can be overwhelming to new hires) but allows our staff to stay lean and mean.
Our leadership team is spending one hour per week this quarter reviewing things our team does on a daily basis that can be automated or removed from our workflows.
Prioritize spending: When resources are limited, you’ve got to be strategic about where you invest your time and money. Prioritizing spending involves identifying the areas of the business that will have the greatest impact on growth and profitability, and focusing resources on those areas.
This means getting real with yourself – is what you’re doing and spending money on really moving the needle?
How this works for us: To improve our sales and marketing efforts, we review all of our new clients and how we got in contact with them. This helps us to make sure we are investing only in things that move the needle. We don’t want to spend time and money on channels that don’t have an ROI.
Collaborate with others: Collaboration can be a powerful way for small businesses to overcome the limitations of limited resources. By working with other businesses, industry associations, or even government agencies, you can pool resources and achieve economies of scale.
How this works for us: We collaborate and partner on all sides of the house. We leverage partners for things we don’t want to build into our software and integrate with them. We sell primarily through partners (like CPA’s) and work with others to create win/win/win situations.
This one cannot be overstated, the partnership economy is real. You need to look for strategic partners where you can provide value and vice versa.
Ultimately, the key to overcoming a lack of resources is to be strategic, resourceful, and flexible. You’ve got to be able to adapt to changing circumstances, make the most of the resources you have, and take advantage of new opportunities that position you for success.
Let me know what topics you want to hear more about in Growth Models.
Cheers, Matt
