Controlling the Explosion: Solutions for Growing Too Fast

AccuCode has been through two very difficult financial times during our eight year history. Both were due to my attempts at growing too quickly. In anticipation of growth, I added people and infrastructure. Because AccuCode is self funded , when revenue took a short term dip I found myself overextended. Sadly, good employees had to be laid-off and others had to take pay cuts. Vendors, both good and bad, were stretched while we tried to sell our way out of the situation. In both instances the company went through short periods of contraction. I had to very quickly make decisions about which employees were critical and which could be let go without impacting our ability to serve our customers. These were painful and expensive lessons. However, as a growth-minded CEO, I think these situations are inevitable and in many cases healthy for the company. Neverending success leads to complacency. Every organization needs a dose of reality and an occasional pruning. Due to those experiences, I now try to go through a smaller (voluntary) version of this kind of pruning at least twice a year.