Growing Pains in Business are the same as real life

Growing Pains, everybody gets them. So pains are slight and barely noticeable, but others stick with you for a bit-nagging and irritating you until you get past them.
The same can be said for growing a small business an article in Inc. states  "...growing pains in a small business equate to lack of time and resources."
These types of pains can hurt your small business from making the next step in growth.
some businesses decide to keep their growth to a minimum, never really experiencing these issues.
However, if you are a business that has decided to attempt to reach the next level, there are a few items that you should keep in mind.

1. Do you have the capital to expand your business?  Can you take out a small business loan, possibly borrow from your home money account, ask friends or family to lend/give you money. Have you saved enough from past sales to cover your new growth?
-Personally, I kept all of my profit and reinvested it into my company, before I took any money for myself. It did make for days of questioning and wondering what am I really doing here, but it turned out to be the best option for me. An old quote that rang true ti me was "Nothing ventured, nothing gained".
2. If you want to take your business to the next level, how will you plan it?
Do you have the resources, capital, time, employees, knowledge? Each of these points needs to be answered before you decide to make the leap. Without these, and possibly a few others that I have neglected to mention, you will not be set up for true growth. Imagine building a bridge and forgetting to add a part to it's structure, it is doomed to fail-maybe not for some time, but inevitably it will collapse.
A good article to help you with the details, is from ehow.com, How to Handle Small Business Growing Pains.
3. Once you decide to go to the next level, whether it be by selling in a mass retail market, wholesale, or numerous craft fairs/vendor events. You have obviously already answered question #2 and are now here. Do you like the answers that you have received from #2, are you making a healthy profit, has your your knowledge of your product and your industry met the wants/needs of your customers, do you still have a life after your "work" is done?
Hopefully, your answers are a resounding yes to each of these questions and you are motivated to continue onward, feverishly dominating your market!

Best of luck to your growing business, may your pains be slight and barely noticeable.
You have chosen to live out the American or Insert Country Here ____________ Dream and hopefully you will meet the expectations that you have established for yourself.