o2businesscoach

Every business owner wants to experience that big moment. A video is on fire. It’s shared by thousands of people. Orders are beginning to come in. The number of visitors to a website surges overnight. The phones don’t stop ringing. It really does seem like the business has finally arrived for a good part of the time.

Then real life comes along.

As a business coach, I’ve seen a lot of business owners pursue visibility, thinking that visibility is the key to growth. Many do not realize that exposure magnifies all things. It accentuates strengths and will reveal weaknesses. If a business suddenly ‘goes viral’ on TikTok, Instagram or any other platform, it does not necessarily mean it is a success story. In many instances it turns into a stress examination and indicates if the company is prepared to scale or not.

I recently spoke with a business owner who had this same situation. One short video surprisingly garnered millions of views. There was instant reaction. The website was inundated with visitors, stock went out before it could be restocked and enquiries came in faster than they could be dealt with. Initially, it was all a celebration. They thought they discovered the magic potion for expansion.

The excitement was quickly replaced by frustration in a week.

Inventory was depleted. There was a backlog of customer service requests. Shipping delays increased. Negative reviews began to surface on the Internet. When the customers found out about the business through the video, they were not happy as the expectation was not being fulfilled. A huge opportunity turned into an operational challenge in no time.

It wasn’t the attention that was the issue.

The issue was the company was designed to cater for hundreds of customers, not tens of thousands.

One of the most critical lessons entrepreneurs should learn. Marketing can generate the need, but operations must meet the need. A viral moment can get people to your door, but the customer experience will decide whether or not they will stay, come back again and tell others.

Businesses tend to be very preoccupied with getting customers and not much attention is paid to the processes behind growth. They put money into social media, advertising, branding, but they neglect the processes of fulfillment, communication with customers, inventory management and team development. These spaces are usually not visible until a new influx brings them all to light.

The challenge is even more difficult, as the consumers today are demanding speed! They have grown used to being updated and knowing what’s going on, receiving responses quickly, and being served without a hassle. When you get a customer from a viral video, that customer is not compromising on expectations based on your small size. They make comparisons to all other companies they deal with.

It’s hard for entrepreneurs to swallow that reality.

The possibilities of visibility are endless. With technology, a small business can be connected to the international world within a short period of hours. But it is still necessary to prepare, discipline and have infrastructure in place to scale a business. The basic principles remain the same. Systems are still required. Processes are still required. Even if the team is able to grow, it still requires a team that can handle it.

Over my career I have been constantly reminding business owners that success does not destroy businesses. Unprepared success does.

Growing a business without adequate systems can be more of a hindrance than a help. Cash flow is erratic. Employees become overwhelmed. The quality of products may become compromised. A sense of mistrust grows. The business goes into a continuous firefighting mode instead of being able to build momentum.

Smartest entrepreneurs plan for growth before it occurs.

They assess their supply chains. They develop “scalable processes”. They invest in training. They document procedures. They identify bottlenecks. They pose challenging problems regarding next month’s possible increase in demand. They do this work beforehand and thus put themselves in a position to use opportunities in a way they cannot resist.

But it’s not necessarily a large workforce or complex systems that’s required for every business. It is knowing your own boundaries and planning on how to grow when you need to. Preparation creates flexibility. Flexibility creates resilience.

The companies that do well following the viral video are not necessarily the ones that have the greatest numbers of followers. They are the ones who have the most solid foundations of operations. They know that the attention phase is only the first of the journey of the customer. The impact that occurs after the click is sometimes more important than the click itself.

If a video receives mass exposure, then the market is asking a question: can you live up to the promise you are making?

If the answer is “yes,” then growth can be phenomenal. If it is no, the attention may go out with as much speed as it came in.

Visibility is to be celebrated by every entrepreneur. It’s a formidable tool! However, preparation is required to make visibility inexpensive. There’s no need to just “catch people’s attention”. The aim is to create a company that can meet the needs of the attention that it gets.

A viral moment can pave the way, but it is what happens after that will make or break the success. It is the companies that can turn this ‘fad’ into a long-term business who grasp this difference.