Things to Keep in Mind as You Expand your Business

Things to Keep in Mind as You Expand your Business There are several stages of business growth, have you thought about what path you need to take to expand your business?

There are about 1,000 Fortune 500 Companies in the U.S. These are some of the biggest conglomerates anywhere in the world with thousands of employees both locally and internationally. How did these companies get to be so big and were they always this big or did they slowly expand to what they are now?

Growing Your Business

No company starts off as a huge success.

It takes work, expert strategizing, borderline unlimited financing and an exceptional innovation to grow a business into a huge success. As a small business owner, just because you don’t have millions of dollars at your disposal to expand your business doesn’t mean that it’s doomed to fail or remain just a single store on the corner of your local street.

There are tips and strategies that you can use to expand and gradually grow your business into the gigantic success you want it to be. Here are some of those tips and strategies that you can use to start expanding your business today.

Tips for Expanding Your Business

The first thing you need to realize is that this isn’t going to be easy.

It will take some planning and strategizing; it will take you changing your mindset and accepting that maybe some systems aren’t working as well as they should within your business and they need changing or complete elimination. Once you get it in your mind that you might have to make some tough choices and stop thinking of your business as your pet project then you will start to see the opportunities for expansion.

That being said, here are some tips and strategies you can use to grow your business:

1. Have a Clear Strategy

It all begins with a well-defined roadmap. Your expansion strategy should be clearly stated and communicated to everyone involved. However, before you even think of communicating that strategy, you have to clearly define it to yourself. Write down the “what” of it all and have well-researched and explained “how”. You need to have every step of the journey well defined with data to support your theories as well as expectations.

2. Personnel Inventory and Changes

Your business greatly depends on your personnel. If you have the right people for the job, then they will be motivated enough to support your new vision. However, you need to communicate that vision to them and find out if they are willing to do what it takes. For the most part, this will involve things like:

• Taking on additional on-the-job training.
• Accepting new co-workers.
• Finding creative ways to avoid work injuries so they can remain productive and reduce worker compensation claims.
• Working more hours.

The trick here is to make your employees feel included in the company’s vision. That way, they will get the sense that they are a part of something bigger and that will keep them motivated to work harder and smarter.

3. Consider the Finances

To expand, you will need to greatly consider the financing. Can you foot the bill yourself and if not, how can you get financing for your future plans? For the most part, many businesses either find additional investors or go to get a loan from their banks. Finding additional investors is often a better option considering the fact that if you choose the right kind of investor, they will bring their own wealth of experience and expertise into the mix. These are people who can help you iron out all the kinks on your expansion strategy and show you the loopholes that you might not have already considered.

4. Clearly Plan for Logistics and Operations

To expand your business, you will need to enter new markets and either offer them more of what you already have or create entirely new products for that particular market. Either way, you are going to have to take a closer look at your logistics and operations. You will need better ways for your new customers to access your products and you will need to build a robust production to deliver line. Remember, just because you are focused on capturing new markets doesn’t mean that you can ignore the market that you already have. These people also need to be serviced with the same quality and professionalism as before otherwise you will be ceding ground even as you struggle to expand.

5. Is Your Current Business Model Scalable?

This should actually be the very first thing you ask yourself before you embark on an expansion plan for your business. Is the current business model scalable? Meaning, can you deliver more goods at a lower cost and to more markets? If not, then maybe you need to rethink the entire business model or simply start a whole new business with scalability in mind. If it is scalable then you can work tirelessly to implement these tips and strategies to expand your business.

Remember, it could take years for your business to even show signs of growth and more time for it to be as big as you want it to be. You have to make a plan, implement that plan and then adjust accordingly as time goes by.

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by Chris London of Pixel Productions Inc. The Everything Design Company