Q. How can business
leaders manage rapid
growth?
They need to contact
their customers, tell
them they’re inundated
with orders and that
things are going to be
running a little bit late.
About five or six years ago,
we had this huge spurt of business. I sent a letter out to
every one of my customers,
apologized that we were running behind and gave them all
a discount. I didn’t lose one
order, and nobody was upset
with us.
I got a lot of phone calls,
and people appreciated the
fact that I took the time to
be upfront and honest with
them. It was just the right
thing to do.
If you attack the issue
upfront, people appreciate
and accept that. When you
don’t talk to them and the
product doesn’t come in on
time, that’s when people get
upset. That’s one of the problems with a lot of businesses
— they’re not upfront.
Q. How do you deal with
rapid growth?
You’ve always got to be
thinking one step ahead. You have to recognize the market
and have a feel for the influx
of orders and customers. You
just know that things are
brewing. It’s a seventh sense,
a gut feeling and a best-guess
scenario.
You can’t be a brand-new
company and lease 100,000
square feet; you’ll be bankrupt. You’ve got to start
small, but you can’t put yourself in a corner or you’re not
going to grow the business,
the building and the employees.
Q. What happens if you fail
to stay one step ahead?
If the business takes off
and if you’re successful,
you’re going to get overwhelmed with business and
you’re not going to have
enough people on staff to
handle it. You have a responsibility as the owner to be
aware of the overall picture.
If you don’t plan ahead, the
potential of upsetting and
losing customers is very
high. If you take an order
and don’t have a clue how
you’re going to fill it, that’s a
real issue. If you do it
enough times to enough people, then nobody will buy
from you.
One of the most important
things you have to do is
build a good reputation.
There is so much competition in the market today. You
have to attract people to
your business because they
trust you, believe in you and
want to do business with
you. Reputation is everything. With a bad reputation,
you’re done.
HOW TO REACH: The Rosati Window Co. LLC, (888) 866-7800 or www.rosatiwindows.com