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If your small business has been performing well, it’s possible you’re thinking of expanding it to maintain a steady growth. As you may already know, however, expanding is usually one of the most daunting tasks for the average small business owner. A small mistake can cost you thousands of dollars or even the entire business, and that’s why you need to be careful and strategic throughout the process. To help you out, here’re the top four tips to help you achieve that, and ultimately increase your chances of expanding your small business successfully.
Save as much as you can
Although the thought of expanding your business can feel amazing, the process itself often comes at a cost. It’s not difficult to become bankrupt while expanding, as expansion involves a lot of factors and processes. The key is to spend as little as possible while expanding to prevent any financial challenges along the way. One of the ways of saving during an expansion program is outsourcing the relevant areas of your business.
According to Forbes, outsourcing can lead to massive cost savings in terms of human capital, tech equipment and other resources. In other words, as you expand into new territories, you can outsource during the early stages to prevent overspending on expertise, expensive equipment, and space until you have adequate finances to handle the tasks in-house. Moreover, you can take some time to find cost-effective service providers to facilitate your expansion. For instance, if you want to move equipment to a new location, compare the costs of the various commercial moving service companies to get the best deal. For example, you can search for “affordable movers in CT” or your particular locale to get a list of affordable service providers based on customer reviews.
Do a lot of market research
Most of the large successful companies you know have been relying on research to carve out their own section of the market for sustainable growth. For instance, there was a time when everyone thought that Pepsi would be crushed completely by Coca-Cola in the lucrative soft drinks market. However, Pepsi changed how everyone perceived it by segmenting the market and focusing on a particular demographic characterized by young and high-spirited people.
At the moment, you’ll hardly go a day without seeing a Pepsi ad that features pop stars and other status symbols relevant to that particular demographic. Indeed, this strategy that is a result of an extensive market research has helped the company grow into a successful soft-drink company. Therefore, before expanding, you need to conduct a lot of market research to avoid wasting time, money and other resources. Among other things, market research can offer you a lot of insight into the potential market gaps and the weaknesses of your competitors that you can take advantage of.
Add new services or products to the mix
As you expand, you may need to satisfy more needs and wants of your target demographic, and one of the ways of doing that is adding new products and services to your mix. The first thing you should do is figure out the kind of products and services your customers want, and the extent to which they’re willing to pay for them. This is another area that requires extensive market research. You can start by requesting your current customers to provide honest feedback about your new service or product ideas, including your new price points. Generally, you want to focus on customer demand for the new services or products, and the cost of manufacturing, delivering and selling to them.
Don’t forget your current customers
As you expand, make an effort to ensure your current customers feel valued to avoid losing them. You can create a satisfaction survey to gather insights into the particular features that your current customers love about your current business. It should include what can be improved in your business and what they’re expecting in regards to the expansion. The feedback can be extremely valuable when it comes to improving your business and reducing customer churn. In any case, customers who feel like they’re part of your business are more likely to stay loyal to it.
Conclusion
Granted, expanding a small business is always exciting and fruitful as long as everything is done right, and at the right time. Keep the tips above in mind to increase your chances of having a successful expansion and a rewarding business journey.
