Growing and scaling your business is a good thing. It oftentimes brings greater opportunities for yourself and your team, and you're able to do more for your clients. Growth, however, doesn't come without challenges, and one notable challenge small businesses often face is how to maintain culture during times of growth.
First, talk about your values. It's great to talk about your core values during the interview process, but don't stop there. Make sure your hiring and onboarding practices, as well as reward incentives, reflect your values and outline clear expectations, so everyone on your team understands your culture from the very beginning.
Another way to help maintain culture is to accept feedback. Listen to your team, and take note of both the good and bad. You're all in this together, and rallying around that idea will help foster an even deeper sense of culture. Feedback will help your company stay grounded.
Last, be open to change, and give it room to evolve. What do you do with the feedback you receive? Does it get filed away somewhere never to be heard again or do you welcome change openly? Culture isn't something you decide to put into place one day and expect it to stay the same forever. It takes work, and it needs to be nurtured. Culture will rise and fall through different seasons of growth, and that's okay as long as you maintain your core values.
