Would Your Business Pass the 'Octogenarian Australian Tawny Port' Test?

I'm slightly over the two week mark on my travels and I regret to announce that I have 'broken' my co-conspirator... (of course, not in a 'bad' way, it just seems he can't keep up with the casual task of sipping a couple of bottles of wine each day and has had to have a 'little rest'...in this case for the last 36 hours...)

I had naively assumed that as a professional sommelier, he would be up to the task of moderately sampling a few wines everyday but, sadly, he's not proved to be quite as 'robust' as I thought...

And robustness is certainly something the locals appear to have in bucket loads (perhaps enhanced by having regular run-ins with the 'eight legged fraternity' that seem to be in abundance around here)...

Only yesterday I was at a local winery shop, (perusing the delights on offer) when a distinctly octogenarian couple wandered in...They were obviously regulars as the man behind the counter enquired "The usual?...10 litres?" and passed over a container (like a petrol can only much larger) of Australian Tawny Port...

And it transpires this was not for use at a party, or for stocking a drinking hole for locals, but was in fact for 'two or three weeks of personal consumption!' and the only reason it was supplied in the 'petrol can' type container was so it could be poured into wooden barrels at home and topped up a bit with Brandy...

After witnessing this it left me thinking...the term 'robust' to one person may mean something completely different to another. My co-conspirator (currently sleeping off his over-indulgences) thought I was robust, so what would he make of the 'tawny port Aussie octogenarians'...?!

For instance, if you launched a new campaign and it took off, you could find yourself twice as busy, 4 times, 8 times, 16 times. Could you cope? Could you fulfil all your orders within the agreed delivery timescale? Could you keep things in stock? Could you provide support to all of these customers...? Or, would you be compromising something along the way and putting your sales (and possibly your reputation) in jeopardy...?

In short would it have the same affect on your business as 10 litres of Tawny Port would have on my constitution... more used to a couple of glasses of wine a day...?

After all, extra sales are exactly what a business needs to thrive and grow, yet I've spoken to people who are fearful of 'too many' sales coming in at once... and being ill-prepared and rushed...

But there is a way around this, by building in the expectation of growth in to every element of your business however small, or new (or currently non-existent!) your business is at the moment.

For instance, could you satisfy a number of your daily email inquiries by having a FAQ page on your website, or by automating elements of your business so that each delivery (whether digitally or physically) is not so reliant on your personal intervention...? Could you concentrate on higher profit lower volume initiatives? Could you out source aspects of what you do?

If you use software or 'tools' to help you at the moment, are there some 'undiscovered' aspects that are available to you that you're not currently utilising?

Not only will tweaks like this make your business far more efficient on a day to day basis, but ensures your business is far more 'robust' whenever you're faced with changes, allowing you to simply step up a gear immediately to meet demand.