Business Growth Isn’t All About The Size Of A Business

To a layperson, business growth is defined by the size of the business, i.e. how many sites and staff the company has. At Techwell however, we’re a little bit different. We believe that to define business growth, one must first determine their definition of success.

Not growing for the sake of growing

Our opinion on success is similar to that of Jason Fried – the CEO of Basecamp (a web development company founded in 1999). Fried believes only two things grow in size for the sake of growing: businesses and tumours. Therefore, we inferred that Fried, like us, doesn’t define success through superficial means such as business size. This becomes apparent when looking at Basecamp’s staff numbers.

Jason Fried thinks deeply about collaboration, productivity and the nature of work. He’s the co-founder of 37signals, makers of Basecamp and other web-based collaboration tools, and co-author of ‘Rework’.

Although Basecamp (founded 1999) has the revenues and profit to sustain hundreds of employees, Fried has maintained to grow, regarding size, at a slow and natural pace. Given the average lifetime of a tech company is estimated at six years, Basecamp is a prime example of why small businesses do not need to emulate the general definition of growth to live up to their own definition of success. The same goes for Techwell.

Problems associated with rapid growth

For the sake of providing excellent customer support, it’s important to recognise that rapid growth for the sake of growth comes with a set of common problems:

• You could outgrow your premises in the short-term. There may not be enough space for everyone to work efficiently.
• Morale may drop if staff cannot cope with the extra work. Productivity can decrease.
• There may be a shortage of cash to meet expansion costs. Taking on more and more work to generate more income places additional pressure on your premises and staff.
• Management may be under pressure, operating reactively rather than proactively.
• The quality of your products and services could drop, causing an increase in customer complaints. You may even lose customers to your competitors.
• Staff turnover may increase due to heavy workloads. Vital knowledge could be lost as staff leave. Hiring and training new staff takes time and money.
• Your business may lose touch with competitors’ activities.

Techwell – Making technology simple

Considering Techwell is also a tech company, and has been running for over ten years now, we consider our success already quite evident. However, our success is not defined by our lifespan, or the number of our staff, or even how many sites we have, but by the way customers, and potential customers view us.

Technology may be changing at a rapid rate, however, our team always know how to keep it simple and straightforward, so customers save time and can focus on the bigger picture. We pride ourselves on impressing our customers with the level of care and service we provide.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team at Techwell for any of your tech service needs.

Tiffany Lavarn