Key Expansion Strategies that Small Businesses Can Use

Posted in Entrepreneurship | 11 comments

Most small businesses plan to expand and grow into a big company. This is not an easy move as it takes a lot of time, resources, planning and other factors to consider. However, there are businesses that once were really small and they have successfully made the transition to a fully-thriving large business.

Even as a small company, you can use some of the same growth strategies that have worked for big businesses. See which strategy offers an opportunity for your business and best suits your situation.

1. Plan your expansion

Thorough planning is very important. It is actually the most important step when you’re considering expanding a business, ut still, some don’t even consider creating a solid plan.

Don’t even think of expanding without a game plan or else you’ll see your business getting lost along the way.

Have a planning checklist that will serve as your guide for specific tasks and jobs. It helps you to identify those areas of growth and makes it easier to work towards achieving them. Make sure to include your answers to these questions in your checklist:

• What’s the market size?
• What customer groups should we target?
• What’s our competitive advantage?
• How should we position your product or services?
• What would be our marketing plan?
• Do we need new office locations, suppliers and team members?
• How much will the expansion cost?

2. Focus and invest in your people

The key to expanding your business successfully and profitably is not only attracting new talents, but retaining your most valuable asset: your people. Your employees are the most valuable assets of your business. As your business moves forward in growth and expands, never lose sight of this foundation.

Keep everyone informed about what is happening. What are your plans? What do you want to achieve? Will their roles change? Will there be additional talent needed, etc.? This is important to ensure that you continue to achieve your business’ expansion goals.

It is also important that you develop your current team members into leaders. Through this, you can entrust them with important tasks that are vital to your business expansion.

3. Leverage business partnerships

If you’re ready for expansion, consider strategic alliances and leveraging partnerships in a savvy way. Identify the people and organizations important to your business expansion. Continue strengthening those existing relationships and building new ones.

It’s possible that another business needs something that you have. Similarly, they have something that you need too. Look for that and see how you can join forces.

For instance, you’re a distributor of organic health products. You can form relationships with the local gym or health clinic to promote your offerings. You can also sponsor sports events and tournament partnerships.

4. Keep customers informed

Continue to nurture and cultivate your relationships with your customers. It’s important that customers know what to expect.

Once your expansion plans are complete and ready, announce it to your existing and potential customers. Tell them if you have new product offerings, additional services, or, if it’s a new store location, invite them in.

5. Get professional advise

Whatever the nature of your expansion is, it pays to have someone who will guide, support and assist you—from creating an expansion plan and developing the strength of your leadership team to arranging the transition and bringing it all into action. Having a business coach that has experience in helping small businesses who want to expand definitely helps.

Ready to grow your business, but you have no idea where to start?

Start by watching our business-altering video titled The 3 Biggest Lead Generation Mistakes Small Businesses Make… And How To Overcome Them All. We’ll reveal the strategies you can immediately deploy that will enable you to out-think, out-market and out-sell your competition.  http://maximizeracademy.com/