Running a small business is tough, but eventually, there comes a time when you feel you’re ready to become something bigger. You don’t have to stay in one place forever, and if you’re success-driven, expansion is likely one of your goals! There are many reasons for a business to expand, but it takes a lot of time and effort to get to a point where it’s possible. The problem is, like most ventures in your business, expansion is expensive and risky, and not something you should do if you’re not ready for it.
Cannot be too prepared
Planning your expansion should take a long time, and for good reason too. You can’t just go with the flow, you need to know what you’re going to do, how it’s going to turn out for you, and how much you’re going to need to pay for it. Your business is growing, but that doesn’t necessarily turn into more income, and it could mean the end for you if you plan it poorly. You need to know what you need, what you’re going to need to have built, who you need to appeal to. Everything is different in a new market.
If you’re going to be moving to a new building or having a bigger building made for your business, how is that going to affect you and your employees? Do your employees have everything they need? Moving and expanding is a big investment, so you should be getting the most out of it.
Ready for recruitment
With expansion comes the need for more employees. Running a small business with a small team is fine, but if you try to stretch that team when your business expands, you’ll find that you may be overworking your staff. Do you have the funds to cover more wages? You mustn’t bite off more than you can chew, and you may need to compensate from your own money when the expansion is happening.
Updating your employee benefits can be great for business. If you’re successful enough to grow, adding more benefits for employees to choose from can be great for your reputation. Getting a cafeteria plan document can be easy enough to do, and now’s the perfect time for you to start thinking about that.
Update your management
With new employees comes extra stress from management. If you were managing your team before increasing the number of employees, the stress of management is going to be a lot more difficult to deal with, so finding new people to manage can be helpful. There’s only so much that one person can do, and trying to manage too many people by yourself can lead to a messy workplace, with messages getting lost in translation, and constantly having to chase people up during your own time. It’s just too much to handle for one person, and there’s no need when you can implement more managers!
The new cost of running it
Along with new employees needing to be hired, if you’re opening up another store, you need to be considering how much it’s going to cost to run it. You’ll be paying for double the products, double the supplies, and double the bills. Ideally, you have enough to cover that for a while, but you can never know how long you’ll need before the store can pay for itself.
Consider your audience size
Part of expansion can sometimes mean moving to a new area, or at least partially moving, means putting yourself in a new market. Even if you’re successful in your current spot, it doesn’t guarantee you to be successful where you’re planning on expanding, and you may even end up struggling to begin with. You need to be prepared to cover yourself financially because it might take a while for you to be making enough profit for two businesses. Try expanding your audience online, having a website or social media can be great ways to reach new customers.
Be open to adapting
Going into a new market means you’re going to be needing new customers, and sometimes that can mean adapting. It’s all well and good to be sailing smoothly in your current market, but you can’t always pull that off twice. Make sure you know what kind of competition you’ll be having, and prepare ways to have yourself stand out amongst them. No business can survive without adapting, and that’s part of an expansion in all scenarios.
Don’t go too soon
While the whole idea of expansion is a risk, you should try to make sure that risk is as small as it can be, otherwise, you’ll be punching a hole in your profits for no reason. Sure, you can cut your losses if it doesn’t work out, but that’s a lot of money to let go of for a poorly planned venture. You need to go when the time is right for your business, and unless you’re sitting comfortably with your finances, you should at least hold off until you can sustain two businesses for a little while.
Expanding your audience
Growing your audience is always a good thing if the return on investment is positive, and there are many ways you can go about that. You’re going to need to expand your audience if you’re going to survive in a new market with new competitors, so it’s important that you know how to do so before expanding.
Social media is a tool that many businesses have been using to grow their brand’s reputation, and it can be very effective if you have the know-how. Your audience can skyrocket if you can properly exploit the benefits of social media, but you’ve got to do it right. For example, you would have likely seen brands like Wendys or Dennys on social media, stirring up a fuss with people online, and it’s gotten them quite a big social media following. It’s key that you know how to properly relate to the online audience.
Your best shot would be to hire someone who fits the demographic matching your target audience so that they can manage the social media pages for you. Of course, with supervision, but if you want your business's social media pages to take off - relating with your target audience is the right way to do it.