Fifteen Tips To Keep Your Company Growing

It was 20 years ago, but David Guernsey still remembers that pit in his stomach.

Guernsey aimed to take his Guernsey Office Products–a retail office-furniture business in Chantilly, Va., then with three locations and $5 million in annual revenues–to the next level. Rather than target other small businesses, he wanted to go after larger fish. His new strategy: store inventory in one massive location and move product via the Web.

Guernsey dug deep, borrowing $8 million, mostly from banks, to cover the cost of extra storage space, delivery vans, tractors-trailers and technology infrastructure. "What I borrowed far exceeded my net worth," he admits. "It was scary, but we needed a new level of sophistication to serve larger customers in order to grow."

Maureen Farrell and Mary Crane

Full Story: http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/2008/08/11/caliper-intuit-microsoft-ent-manage-cx_mc_0811growthtips.html