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Seven Ways To Prepare Your Business For Expansion

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Expansion|Seven Ways To Prepare Your Business For ExpansionKnowing when and how to take your business to the next level is an important skill for any business owner, whether you own a startup or a nationally recognised company. If you’re successful in your current market but feel like you need more of a challenge, expanding nationally or internationally needs careful strategy planning. Put your business through these top tips to get it expansion ready.

  1. Set attainable goals for your business. Make sure these goals are specific and measurable, such as taking on five new accounts by the end of the financial year, or increasing revenue by $1million in the next six months. Goals you can measure can be tracked so you know if you’re on track to meet target or if you’ll need to push harder to reach them. Set out a plan. How will you get from your current position to the goal?
  2. Can your company manage the growth? Do you have the capacity to manage the planned growth? Can you afford it? Do you have enough staff or will you need to bring in more? Can your suppliers meet a higher demand? Is your office large enough to cope with more staff? Make sure the answer to all these questions is yes before you start to grow.
  3. Do you have the right management in place? You need someone at the reins who is ambitious, driven and capable of taking your business into a larger market. Like Tully Rinckey, consider bringing in a new CEO or other management who can help you to grow. Look for people with experience in growing business who can advise and steer the ship successfully.
  4. Don’t be afraid to adjust the plans. You’ll inevitably learn more as your business grows. The industry may change, or the market may shift direction. Be ready to respond and adjust targets and plans to get there if you need to. There’s no point in sticking hard to a goal that is no longer relevant. It’s important to be flexible.
  5. Be realistic about your company. Are you already established in your field and working successfully? If not, don’t try to grow too early. Focus instead on becoming an established recognised name at your level. Growing too fast won’t help you at all. Is there a demand for what you do? You can’t grow if there’s not enough demand for your business. Some businesses just work better small, and that doesn’t mean you’ve failed.
  6. Does your company owe money? Debt can snowball easily, so before concentrating on expansion try to clear or pay down as much debt as you can. A fresh slate will make growth much easier. A debt snowball method can help you to cut down your debts easily.
  7. Are you already growing? If you’re experiencing steady growth each year, with an increase in demand for your business, this is an excellent sign that it’s time to take things up a notch. Expand with more staff to take on a higher demand for your work and keep things profitable. If you’re not growing, it’s probably not the right time to expand.

Time to Expand? How to Get it Right

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Expand Your Business | Time to Expand? How to Get it RightIf the time has come for your business to expand and take things to the next level, you need to tread carefully. Of course, growth and expansion are vital parts of running a successful company but expansions should always be undertaken with great care and consideration. Get things wrong and your business could be left in a worse position than it started in and that’s not what you want. Here’s how to go about it the right way.

Plan to Mitigate the Challenges That Come with Growth

Expansion is all well and good, but you must also remember that growing businesses bring their own challenges that shouldn’t be ignored. If you’re going to succeed with your business, you should do what you can to mitigate the challenges that come with growth. That means ensuring you have processes in place to deal with more customers and things of that nature. Even in something positive, challenges and problems can emerge if you’re not careful.

Scale Up the Workforce

You must also scale up the workforce if you’re serious about expanding. There’s no sense in asking your small team to deal with an expanded business and a raft of new clients and customers. That will only place pressure on them that they might not be able to deal with, and that’ll backfire badly in the end. So hire more people and bolster your business’s workforce.

Take Over Another Business

Mergers and takeovers give you the chance to make your business bigger and expand its scope at the same time. Many big businesses have grown by swallowing up others and growing along the way. This applies to just about any business too. Whether you want to view dental practice listings to buy up other local practices or take over retail operations, it’s worth exploring and considering going forward.

Introduce New Products or Services

As part of the expansion of your business, you should also aim to introduce new products and services to your business. People will be more interested in your business and what it’s offering if they can see a clear improvement and more options. If they already know what you’re offering and there’s nothing new, there’ll be no incentive for those customers to take a second look.

Look to New Territories

Expanding into new territories is definitely a good idea if you have the resources available to you to make that happen. It’s a natural and productive way of expanding your offer because you’ll be giving potentially millions of new customers a chance to engage with your business that wasn’t there before. Be sure to carry out market research and see if this is something you feel your business could benefit from.

Expanding a business is always a big challenge and there are plenty of things that can go wrong along the way for you. But expansion is key if you want your business to have a sustainable long-term future. There’s only so long you can keep your business at the same level before feeling the need to expand it.

Tips For Successfully Growing Your Business

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The decision to grow your business is an exciting one, but can also bring many new challenges your way. Plan ahead, so you have a good idea of what you want to see your company tackle going forward and know exactly how you’re going to handle the growth process.

You want to make sure the numbers are there, and your business is stable enough to withstand the expansion you’re about to undertake. Review the following tips to help you make certain you not only grow your business but that you do so successfully and without having any regrets at the end of the day.

Have A Plan in Place

Your first order of business is to get organized and create a roadmap, so you know where you’re heading in the future. Successfully grow your company by coming up with a strategic plan for how you’re going to get from one point to the next without experiencing any major road bumps. Some easy steps to follow regarding your plan include:

  • Setting new goals
  • Figuring out how you’re going to go about meeting your objectives
  • Having a backup plan handy if all doesn’t go your way

Prepare Behind the Scenes

Successfully grow your business by getting prepared behind the scenes and having the right technology and resources in place. For instance, you might want to consider a VPS server solution which will provide you with more control and flexibility. This can confirm your data is protected and ensures you have the means to gradually grow and expand your venture too. You want to ensure you’re fully equipped to handle the expansion in the office, so there are no disruptions to your service or delivery.

Continue to Provide Excellent Customer Service

What you don’t want to happen is to get so involved with the process of growing your business that you forget about your customers along the way. It’s extremely important to continue to serve them well and go above and beyond to meet their needs. You can successfully grow your business by getting more and more customers onboard who adore you and are willing to go spread a positive message about your business to their friends and family members.

Be Willing to Adapt

It’s your job as the boss and leader to make sure you know what you’re doing and are able to successfully bring your company to another level. Being able to adapt to the ever-changing business and industry landscape can see your business benefit and stand out from competitors. You’ll want to proactively take the proper measures to so you can continue to outsmart your competition and go to market with the latest and greatest before they do.

Conclusion

Growing your business isn’t easy, but it is doable if you have the right approach and guidelines in place. Use these tips to help you set yourself up for success so you can continue to outshine your competition in the future. Be willing to work hard and put forth an extra effort, especially in the early stages of this transition

Essential Ingredients Every Business Needs

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Unfortunately, you can’t simply launch a company and expect business to be booming overnight. There’s a framework you need to put in place, and essential ingredients you’ll want to include that will help you succeed and get through the rough times.

It’s not a wise idea to move forward blindly without specifics in place from how you’re going to get from one point to the next. Always be forward-thinking and coming up with ideas for how you can be improving as you go. Include the following key requirements you need to experience long-term stability, and you’ll be quickly heading down the right path.

A Solid Business Model & Objectives

If you want to make money with your venture, then you’re going to need to have a sound business model in place with a list of critical objectives you’re going to tackle. Pay attention to what sources of revenue you have available to you and if you feel you’re competitively priced or not as you work on your roadmap. Set goals for what you’re going to work toward in the coming years and include specifics for how you’ll achieve each one. This is an instance where you do want to obsess over the details and make sure you’re putting yourselves on a solid course to victory for the long-term.

Policies, Processes & Procedures

Every business needs to have policies, processes, and procedures in place to function optimally. It’s not a wise idea to launch your company and simply hope for the best without documenting and communicating out your rules and expectations. You’ll need this type of structure in place as you begin to hire on more staff and expand your offerings. Efficiency and speed will become even more important as you grow and the only way to do this is by coming up with a framework of best practices. There will be less confusion on a daily basis and more communication occurring between departments and individuals when everyone’s on the same page.

Technology Solutions

Doing your work manually isn’t a good solution for the future because it slows you down and provides more opportunity for errors to occur. You can read more about what your options are for how technology can improve your business such as tracking time and individual projects. This way you’ll know exactly who’s in the office when you’ll save yourself money and can quickly take note of who’s working on what projects. Adopting more technology solutions will allow your employees to be more productive and you’ll be happier because you’ll be achieving your goals at a quicker rate. Bring more of what you’re doing online, and you’ll likely notice that your business runs a lot more seamlessly and there are fewer complications.

Talented Employees

Every successful business needs to have skilled and talented employees who are ready to work hard each day. Hire wisely by taking the time to come up with specific job descriptions, read through resumes and participate in the interviewing process. Be very careful and mindful of who you hire and bring onboard because it will cost you even more money to keep replacing people. Your company will progress nicely when you can depend on the staff who you’ve hired to complete their tasks correctly the first time around and not have to constantly be babysitting and correcting mistakes. Hold regular company-wide meetings and assign your employees individual coaches to ensure everyone feels valued and connected.

Strong Leadership

No business ever made it too far without having a strong team of leaders and management in place to guide employees and execute on the company’s objectives. Surround yourself with good people who have experience working in high-level positions and understand and can help you achieve your vision. Your company needs direction and people who are committed to building a bright future filled with a lot of positive outcomes. This will be especially important in difficult times or when your staff isn’t feeling very motivated. Your business will require strong leaders who will step up in the face of adversity and never give up or quit.

Paying Customers

Your business won’t survive too long without a long list of loyal and paying customers who you can depend on in good times and in bad. It’s essential you pay attention to your clients and offer them consistent and outstanding customer service. Reach out and seek feedback and listen to their viewpoints so you can make any necessary changes going forward. Focus on delivering quality products or services that are innovative and meet the needs of your customers. Engage with them on social media and be available to answer their questions or talk through any concerns. What will help you out the most is continuously testing out new products or services with small groups of people before you go to market with them, so you can guarantee they’re a hit.

A Plan for Problems

You should never expect all to go smoothly and as planned when you’re running a business. There will always be roadblocks, obstacles and unexpected happenings that you’ll need to deal with and manage. Think ahead by planning for problems and determining what it is that could possibly go wrong, so you’re prepared for these hiccups when they do occur. Always spend within your means and have resources available to you should anything get steered in another direction, and you need to act fast. Focus on problem-solving your way out of sticky situations instead of flying off the handle or giving in to these inevitable issues.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the essential ingredients every business needs to truly thrive in a competitive and cutthroat landscape. Work on achieving success in these areas, and you’ll be a lot better off as you continue to develop your company. What will help you to accomplish this goal is if you make a list and then prioritize what you believe is most important that you get done first and continue to work your way through the remaining items.

Are These Problems Restricting Growth In Your Business?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleYou may have the greatest product the world has ever seen (we like to be optimistic). Your staff may be of the highest calibre. And you have reliable customers using your business on a regular basis. But if your business isn’t growing, there is clearly something wrong somewhere. You could sit back and hope the situation improves – and it might – but it’s worth getting to the root source of any possible issues. In this article, we will look at some of the problems that may be restricting growth in your business.

Problem #1: You have a limited online presence

You probably understand already how your business can benefit from an online presence, but you need to extend your reach beyond the typical environs of your website. Improve your marketing attempts on social media, by utilising social media buttons on your site, and encouraging your customers to pass the word about your worth. Contribute to other blogs, and ask the blogger for permission to use backlinks to your site. And consider the benefit of SEO services to improve your presence on Google’s page rankings, getting your website from page 101 to page 1 on the search engine.

Problem #2: You are spending too much money

You want your business to be the best it can be, but spending too much can eat into your profits. So, if you are constantly splashing out on technologies your business doesn’t need, and if you are neglecting practical ways to save money across your business, you won’t see much growth within your bank balance. Only buy what you need, keep money in reserves for rainy day emergencies, and look for ways to reduce the costs in both your small and large expenses.

Problem #3: You aren’t spending enough money

Sorry for the apparent contradiction, but you should see our point. While you don’t want to overspend on the things that don’t matter, there are some areas in your business where you should invest your money to make growth possible. These areas include marketing, staff training, and even a change in premises if your business is dependent on your location in town. Again, save money where you can when focusing on these things, but make them a priority when choosing where to spend your money.

Problem #4: Fear of rejection

Don’t be a wallflower, and don’t let your fears of rejection from others paralyse your business. You need to push yourself, not only within your marketing efforts but in building relationships with others. Get to know the people within your industry, and learn from their valued advice. Get yourself to conferences and other industry events to meet them. Talk to your customers, and ask them for referrals. Use social media and face-to-face contact to ask them. Speak to your staff and ask them for advice from time to time, and if you are struggling in any way, let them shoulder some of your burdens. By putting yourself out there, people will know what you need, and they will help you in ways that may benefit the overall status of your business.

Problem #5: You!

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Sorry, but you may be holding the business back from growth. The previous point illustrates this to a degree, but there may be other problems inherent in your leadership. You may be pushing your staff too hard, causing burnout and unproductivity. You may not be pushing them enough, meaning your staff aren’t being as efficient as they could be. You may be doing too much or too little yourself, so delegate those tasks you struggle with yourself, and concentrate your efforts into the tasks you can do well. Be polite to your customers, and don’t do anything that will cause them to dislike you. Take a long hard look at yourself and reflect on your behaviour within your business. You don’t have to be perfect, but if you are doing anything that acts as a detriment to your business growing, start making changes to better yourself and your practices today.

Problem #6: Your rivals are better than you

Why should somebody choose your business over that of your nearest rival? You need to be better than the competition, outsmarting them at every turn. This includes pricing your product or service competitively, offering discounts and promotional deals to beat your rival in sales, and excelling with whatever it is you are offering the customer, ensuring quality is the key word within every facet of your business. In business, you are at war – you are fighting to keep your customers on your side – so always be alert to what your rivals are doing, and resolve to beat them in everything you do.

Problem #7: You are not learning from your mistakes

Nobody is perfect, so don’t worry if you make mistakes. You are human, after all. But taking the previous points in this article as examples, you may have made some fundamental errors in your business. Your website may not have been up to scratch. You may have neglected to market your business properly. You may have had issues with your spending. And you may have managed other facets of your business incorrectly. It’s tough running a business, so don’t sweat it if you do make mistakes here and there. But here’s the thing. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, your business will never grow. If you fail to make corrections to weak areas within yourself or your business, there will be little or no change, other than towards the negative. Look at your mistakes, figure out what went wrong, and move forward with a head for change, and a vision to better yourself. Only then will growth take place, not only within your business, but in your personal life too.

Final word

Let’s be honest. It takes time to grow a business, and profits don’t come quickly. But to ensure growth, you do need to tackle any problems that can hinder your chances of success. Follow the tips in this article, and reach out to other people within your business and social circles who can help you deal with any of the potential problems you may be facing.