When your small business starts to expand, it will be an exciting time, proving that the plans you had in the first place are starting to show signs of success. However, managing such expansion can sometimes lead to problems and quickly undo a lot of your hard work. Getting overly ambitious or trying to grow faster than you should could lead to financial ruin and troubles. Therefore, it is important that you manage small business expansion in the most effective way possible, by following these key tips.
1. Review Your Situation and Goals
Begin by assessing your current situation to ensure that your small business really is ready to expand. If you’re thinking about growing then you must be in a financially stable position with revenues that keep increasing. Consider what effect you want expansion to have, how much more time it will take up and by how much you wish to grow. Expanding too quickly or by too much can be the downfall of many SMEs. Ensure tight control over how much you do grow by to avoid making this mistake, taking it one step at a time.
2. Arrange an Audit
Before you begin to expand, during and after, it can be incredibly useful to arrange regular external auditing. As well as an auditor making sure that your finances, taxes and legal factors are all in order, they can identify problems in your internal processes for you to adapt in order to expand successfully. Financially, auditing should help reassure your small business that it is in a good position to begin expanding, while providing added peace of mind to potential investors that you will deliver a safe investment.
3. Increase Product/Service Offering
Whether you’re expanding to new markets overseas or at home, adding new products or services to your range is a tried and tested way to expand successfully. Work out which of your products or services drive the most demand and either increase their offering or create a new, adapted version to introduce. This will not only attract new customers and clients but you may be able to sell more to your existing clientele with an increased range available.
4. Conduct Market Research
The best way to efficiently grow your product/service offering and business as a whole is by conducting thorough market research. This should provide a good idea if there is a market for your business to expand into and what potential new customers will want from your business. There are various ways to conduct market research, such as surveys, questionnaires, interviews and more. Be sure to target demographics related to your business expansion.
5. Collaborate
Working with another business is a great way to not only learn from their knowledge and experience of expanding but to share skills. In a new market they can instantly raise your brand exposure that could otherwise take months of work. If your product/service offerings differ then you can introduce each other to your clients, with no fear of competition.
These five tips will be useful for any small business looking to expand and achieve even greater success in the near future.