Before you can grow, as the business owner you must take into consideration the many challenges and benefits to expanding a business. It is not simply just a matter of providing additional services to a greater number of people. You must carefully plan the expansion while weighing personal and business capacities along with current market research. Failure to do this could risk the overall health and status of your business.
Personal Concerns
Consideration must be given to the personal impact on your life. If you are not much of a risk-taker, expansion might cause undue stress. Can the extra workload be easily incorporated into the day, or are you prepared to work longer hours? Will you struggle with delegating jobs and authority? In addition, would any additional services require new skills that would have a steep learning curve? Would you have the time to effectively learn that skill? You need to take time to answer these questions truthfully.
Evaluating Your Current Business
Is your business ready to expand your current services? As a business owner, you must carefully evaluate the current health of the business. Is your current client base holding steady or declining? A decline could indicate major problems. These problems should be resolved before there is any talk of expansion. Determine if your business has established the goals that were set upon opening. Is it financially stable?
Market Research
Once you have taken time to consider your personal concerns as a business owner and evaluated your business it is time to do some market research. The market research must be current. You, like many business owners, may be tempted to rely on the information from the opening of the business, but this is a dangerous strategy. Much of that information will be outdated. Changes in and around your business may have a positive or negative impact on the local market. Your competition may have made significant changes that can have a drastic impact on the expectations of your clients.
Planning
Once the market research has been completed, you must carefully consider how growth in capacity or services could be met by your business. Staffing, facility requirements, and access to resources would all need to be carefully planned out. You must also keep in mind that any changes in your business must meet any state or industry regulations. Are you and your business ready to meet the increased demand?
Financial Implications
Finally, what are the financial challenges for the growth of your business? You must carefully calculate expected expenditures in terms of hiring additional staff, building additions, and implementing new training programs. Then, you must decide where to come up with the necessary money. Does the capital already exist or would it require taking out a loan? Bottom line - the projected income must outweigh the expected costs.
Expanding your local business comes with many unique challenges, but can result in a considerable increase in income. Just make sure you carefully consider personal issues, the current health of your business, market research, necessary changes, and the financial implications and possible payoffs. Doing so will ensure an expansion rate that is appropriate for your local business.
Since 1994, Jeff Fisher has been helping entrepreneurs and business owners improve their businesses and marketing strategies. In 2009, Jeff decided to focus his efforts on the emerging internet marketing for local businesses, which is why he started Local Web Traffic Solutions.
Take advantage of Jeff's web presence simplified email series in which he breaks down his internet marketing strategies into easy to follow st
Personal Concerns
Consideration must be given to the personal impact on your life. If you are not much of a risk-taker, expansion might cause undue stress. Can the extra workload be easily incorporated into the day, or are you prepared to work longer hours? Will you struggle with delegating jobs and authority? In addition, would any additional services require new skills that would have a steep learning curve? Would you have the time to effectively learn that skill? You need to take time to answer these questions truthfully.
Evaluating Your Current Business
Is your business ready to expand your current services? As a business owner, you must carefully evaluate the current health of the business. Is your current client base holding steady or declining? A decline could indicate major problems. These problems should be resolved before there is any talk of expansion. Determine if your business has established the goals that were set upon opening. Is it financially stable?
Market Research
Once you have taken time to consider your personal concerns as a business owner and evaluated your business it is time to do some market research. The market research must be current. You, like many business owners, may be tempted to rely on the information from the opening of the business, but this is a dangerous strategy. Much of that information will be outdated. Changes in and around your business may have a positive or negative impact on the local market. Your competition may have made significant changes that can have a drastic impact on the expectations of your clients.
Planning
Once the market research has been completed, you must carefully consider how growth in capacity or services could be met by your business. Staffing, facility requirements, and access to resources would all need to be carefully planned out. You must also keep in mind that any changes in your business must meet any state or industry regulations. Are you and your business ready to meet the increased demand?
Financial Implications
Finally, what are the financial challenges for the growth of your business? You must carefully calculate expected expenditures in terms of hiring additional staff, building additions, and implementing new training programs. Then, you must decide where to come up with the necessary money. Does the capital already exist or would it require taking out a loan? Bottom line - the projected income must outweigh the expected costs.
Expanding your local business comes with many unique challenges, but can result in a considerable increase in income. Just make sure you carefully consider personal issues, the current health of your business, market research, necessary changes, and the financial implications and possible payoffs. Doing so will ensure an expansion rate that is appropriate for your local business.
Since 1994, Jeff Fisher has been helping entrepreneurs and business owners improve their businesses and marketing strategies. In 2009, Jeff decided to focus his efforts on the emerging internet marketing for local businesses, which is why he started Local Web Traffic Solutions.
Take advantage of Jeff's web presence simplified email series in which he breaks down his internet marketing strategies into easy to follow st