At certain point, each successful business reaches a crossroads of sorts. When a business owner realizes that they’ve accomplished as much as they can in a local market, they then face a big decision: to expand or not to expand? Of course, growing a company in order to reach new heights is a potentially lucrative investment. On the other hand, though, plenty of entrepreneurs have found expansion to be a troubling and costly process. With that in mind, today we’ll focus on how you can effectively move your budding enterprise into new locales –– without suffering some of the common pitfalls associated with small business growth.
Seek Out Similar Markets
Some businesses provide extremely versatile, universal services. Conversely, other companies rely on specific conditions to find success. As such, it doesn’t make much sense for a company that sells winter clothing and ski equipment to open up a retail location in Miami, for instance. However, there are often more subtle indicators of whether a market is a good fit for your business. Demographics, population size, current competitors, and market culture all should affect your choice on whether or not to expand.
Find a Foothold
Perhaps you’ve already been able to offer remote work for a few out-of-market clients. If so, then you can use those relationships you’ve already cultivated to leverage your position in a new area. Of course, that means you have to go above and beyond to deliver solid results for those clients. You can’t use recommendations from a client for whom you’ve underachieved, after all!
Get Your HQ in Order
Before seriously contemplating expansion, ask yourself: is your current office setup ready for more business? You’ll need to account for a number of factors to determine your answer, including: how many employees you have, their experience levels, the size of your workspace, and, of course, your telecommunications capabilities. Remember, your phone system is vital to ensuring remote connectivity between multiple locations. It’s one reason why Hosted VoIP phones are so important to seamless business development!
Trust Your Team
Opening up a new location or exploring a new market means that a business owner will have to handle double the responsibilities they currently shoulder. Unsurprisingly, this often proves too heavy a burden for inexperienced leaders. Instead of trying to do everything yourself, you need to learn how to delegate assignments to your team members. Expanding means placing more trust in your staff and promoting from within. Without the support from your current employees, your business will struggle to gain traction in a new market.
