NFIB

Growing Pains
06/ 03/ 2003

by Valencia Roner

Just over a year after founding VXR Enterprises, a marketing and public relations firm based in Los Angeles, I landed a contract that put us in the big leagues. A month later, we moved into a bigger office, and by the summer, banks were competing to lend to us. Sweet, indeed, was this second year, as it is for many entrepreneurs. You've landed clients and begun to build a reputation. Good things start to snowball. However, so too, does stress.

Suddenly, clients demand more without necessarily wanting to pay more. A lot of work must go into figuring out whether projects are cost effective -- and into how to say no if they aren't. Smaller contracts may no longer entice, yet turning down business is tough.

Then there is your staff. Are your people up to the task of growth? Are they the thinkers you will need, workers who are able to run with projects without always having to ask for direction?

You've made it through the hard part - the start-up. Surprise! Year two comes with its own set of challenges. It is when you must become among the fittest who will survive over the long haul. You also realize that you are still paying rather than reaping. The demands are greater; the pace has accelerated. You must step up and deliver even faster and better than before just to remain competitive.

You also must learn a major lesson: Time is money. When satisfied clients pressed for more work from us without wanting to pay more, we could no longer automatically say yes. We needed to do a cost analysis to consider whether we would be profitable if we invested the time in the additional work. Similarly, when a $75,000 contract presented itself, we could no longer express knee-jerk excitement. We needed to ask whether it would be worth our while to accept a modest piece of business with so many demands.

Another issue to consider is who does the work. It shouldn't be you anymore, at least not exclusively. Growing up means that a business moves out of the house (in which it was likely launched), and also begins to add staff. Increasingly, the owner's role becomes not doing the work, but overseeing people who can execute competently.

Into the second year of business, the stress and the need to replace staff took a toll. A crisis involving stolen checks zapped my time and energy. Computer woes were recurring. When I received a job offer that paid as much as the total amount of some contracts, I was tempted.

But the lesson: Year two is when you'll wonder what possessed you to take on such an awesome endeavor in the first place. You're part of an elite group of risk takers that didn't merely talk about starting a business but actually did it and survived. You can't run a $1 million company as you would a $100,000 company, so brace yourself for the daunting challenges of this next phase. Then use the faith and courage that got you to this point to make the necessary changes.

Valencia Roner is founder of Los Angeles-based VXR Enterprises, a marketing public relations firm. http://www.VXREnterprises.com.

---

This article originally appeared in the June/July 2003 issue of MyBusiness magazine.

Small Business Sound Off
Does this story hit home?  Share your story with us