Growth & Expansion Stage

Growth & Expansion

Resources | Life Cycle Assessment | Growth & Expansion

Your business is rapidly expanding in terms of revenues, products, funding and hiring. You’ll often see new products coming to market, expansion into new geographies, and the steady hiring of talent at all levels. It’s critical at this stage to establish an in-house compliance and accounting function or an outsourced model. It’s also time to formalize operations including integrating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

Hiring talent

When your business is rapidly accelerating, hiring the right talent is mission critical. Now you will need people at all levels and likely across all functions. In this context, you’ll need to consider the structure of your employee base, their location and whether to hire roles internally or to turn to outsourcing.

Key questions to ask:

What positions are needed and when?
What functions should we hire internally? Which should be outsourced?
Should we pursue internal development and production or use a third party?
What is our location strategy? How do we assess the business climate across jurisdictions?

BPM services that can help

Working capital

Growth is fueled by funding, and you’ll need to continue to position yourself in a way that keeps your capital steam flowing. Unlike the start-up phase, when you’re trying to raise whatever capital you can, fundraising in the growth phase tends to be more targeted—strategically supporting specific priorities. Funding rounds are typically larger and more complex, and investors are more sophisticated—expecting to receive more detailed information on performance.

Key questions to ask:

Can we support rapid growth with revenue alone, or do we need to supplement with other sources of funding?
What makes the most sense: equity or convertible and/or straight debt?
Should we raise private capital, venture capital or should we go public?
What tools and processes will help with communicating with our investors?

BPM services that can help

Compliance

Rapid growth and increased compliance demands go hand-in-hand. Now is the time to establish your formal compliance and accounting functions. That team will be key decision-makers in developing your location strategy and your international tax structuring plan.

Key questions to ask:

Should we build an in-house accounting function, or outsource it?
What markets offer the best tax incentives?
How will we stay current on tax compliance in new markets?
How can we formalize internal reporting processes?
Are we prepared for potential future audits?

BPM services that can help

Partnerships

As your organization quickly grows and scales, finding the right talent and developing next-gen products can be significant hurdles. This is where partnerships can serve an important role. Combinations with outside entities can take many forms depending on your needs, but what’s most critical is finding the right partner.

Key questions to ask:

Are there staffing gaps that could be better filled by a partnership?
Is there technology we need that cannot be developed internally?
What companies would make the most sense to form a partnership or JV with?

BPM services that can help

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity risks are becoming increasing pervasive. Founders have a responsibility to internal stakeholders, customers and regulators to understand and mitigate these risks at every point in the growth journey. It’s during this period of rapid growth that cyber risks are especially amplified. Taking action requires a disciplined approach that involves funding, ongoing assessments and the development of systematic security processes and procedures.

Key questions to ask:

How can we understand and comply with cybersecurity regulations?
What parts of our business are most vulnerable to cyber risks?
How can we keep our IP safe?
How can we stay on top of cybersecurity risks in a quickly changing environment?