How to Expand Your Business Quickly
There may be times when you find that in order to keep your customers happy and meet their demands, you have to expand your business quickly. Taking too long during these important times could have your customers looking for other suppliers, which could, in turn, leave your business in jeopardy.
There are ways in which you can kick-start your expansion rather than just crawl at a snail’s pace, but you should be aware of all the additional areas of your business that you are affecting and what you might need to do to support them.
TOp 6 Ways to Expand Your Business Quickly
Carry Out Product or Service Research – and Check Out Competitors
To ensure that there is going to be a continuous market in the areas that your expansion will take you into, you will need to perform research. Investing a lot of money into a product line or service that will be short-lived is not a practical decision, and although it could be supplied for your customers in the short term, it may not prove to be worth a full-scale business expansion.
You should certainly check to see if your competitors are offering this service or product to their customers; if they are not, it could only be for two distinct reasons. Firstly nobody has approached them about it, and secondly, they’ve researched it and found it is not financially viable.
Hire Workers That are a Good Fit for Your Business
However, supposing that it is a good idea and you are embracing it, you will need additional help to do it. Unless you are performing the extra tasks involved purely during overtime only with your current employees, it is likely that you will need to hire more workers. Here you have a broad choice;
Agency Workers
You can seek help from an employment agency. They will be able to supply you with temporary workers to fill your spaces. This can be a good idea as you will get to know these workers and be able to hire permanently the ones that you like the most.
Some agencies will actually take on the role of interviewer. So, if you are not mad at the idea of having temporary workers on your site, they will only send you individuals that they deem worthy of your business. This is so you can have the final say at your own interview and therefore employ them before they enter your site on a working agreement.
Hire Yourself
You can, of course, go through the rigmarole of hiring employees totally by yourself rather than using an agency. This will take time and effort, however; you should make sure that you already have in mind the way in which you want your business to work. For instance, offering remote working conditions will enlarge your recruitment pool while relieving the stress of housing additional office workers onsite. This can help your business in many ways, but if you are resolute about having your employees work at your location, there will be other factors to consider.
Obtain Equipment
For instance, you will need to get additional equipment for your new employees to work on and with. Whether they are going to be sitting in an office working or on a production line, in order to get your new products and services to your customers, they are going to require equipment.
This, of course, can be purchased in the usual manner, or you can look into the second-hand market for reconditioned units in order to save some money. However, if you are more prudent, you could rent the equipment that you require. This way, you will be able to try out more advanced makes and models that you may not otherwise be able to afford and assess whether to not your expansion is worth your effort while paying less on a monthly basis and then releasing a large amount of funds in one go.
Rent Additional Space
If you do not wish your employees to work remotely or require additional employees for your production line, you may need to rent additional business space. Paying rent on two sites can be more expensive than renting one much larger unit, so you will have to keep in mind that you may need to move your business in order for it to succeed.
Of course, if you are a manufacturing company and you don’t want to expand your production area into your office area while your office workers work remotely, you could offer shift work so that your production lines are manufacturing 24 hours a day.
Seek Additional Funding
Seeking additional funding to either purchase (or rent) more equipment or machinery or cover your additional overheads of heightened payroll or building rent can also be something of a headache. However, there are different ways in which you can go about it. Most businesses at this time would seek a business loan, but this can be expensive on repayments and can lead to additional financial stress further down the line.
The next best thing would be to sell shares in your business. However, before you decide to go down this route, you should make sure that you are aware of all the laws and regulations that surround it, such as SOX, which is a factor in many different countries around the world. Speaking to professional businesses such as Sailpoint will not just enlighten you but will assist you in your journey to seek compliance. You should also make sure that you get professional legal advice so you understand the role your stakeholders will play and how they can influence your business and the decisions that you make.
Look to Increase Market Strategies
The additional products or services that you are thinking of expanding into or that your prominent customers have requested may be of interest to other potential customers. In order to reach these individuals or businesses, you will need to broaden your market strategies. Focusing on single areas such as social media or SEO may not get you a large enough slice of the pie, and you may need to embrace more traditional methods such as specialist magazine promotional articles and advertisements.
