Growth -- What does it all really mean?

We are already in the process of figure out how to manage growth. Yes, we have only been catering since May. It is not to early to get the plans drawn out. These plans will allow us to see where we are going and where we have been. The idea is to have this plan(s) in place before we need it so this growth does not catch us by surprise. I have been working on a growth plan that includes a review of the past 5 months -- including what we have spent and made -- and what we will need in the future. I have talked about our future needs assessment project before. This is only an expanded version. The idea is to find out: 1. What we will need in the future (equipment, employees, product, etc) 2. What will cause us to need these things (turning away work, consistent events, etc) 3. What these things will cost and how we will pay for them I have gone through our products and taken our material cost in one graph (in most cases, cost per oz) and in another plotted our cost of each drink (a combination of materials) and what we sell them for. The idea is to get a handle on these costs so that we really understand where the money from each event is going and how to forecast for future growth. I am about half way through this plan and hope to have it completed by Friday evening and off to our financial planner for review. We will then make edits as needed. I really want to keep this document alive -- making changes and revisiting it often. I was reading Dr. Cornwall's site today and found that he was writing about growth as well. He takes ten steps for growth (provided by StartupNation) and goes into a list of challenges that each of these steps takes you through. As I said, we are not yet needed three full crews to cover Bozeman and surrounding areas but we are hoping it will come to that. We do not need an office yet -- yet. We do not need a fleet of trailers and vehicles to pull them -- yet. All of these things need to be planned for, however. In the mean time, we have to make sure to tend to the business as it stands. Nothing is worse for a business than to work so hard on future growth that you forget to water the seedling. ..be bold Tagged: cafe evoke, coffee catering, bozeman, montana, coffee, tea, espresso, business planning, budgeting