Your business is going along nicely. You’re making a good profit, you’ve got good people, loyal customers, and all the trends in your industry are looking positive.
You think you’re ready to grow your business, but how do you do it? It’s all about finding ways to reduce your risks and maximise your potential gains.
Treat your customers like prospects
See if there are more things you can sell your existing customers. Remember, these are people who already trust you and know they can rely on you, so they’re going to be a much easier ‘sell’ than comparative strangers. Is there anything else you could be selling them?
(Of course, diversifying in this way may mean you need to invest in new equipment, new people and even new workspace, so you’ll need to ensure that you know where you can get the finance you need before you go for it.)
Treat your prospects like customers
See if you can attract more customers to grow your business with your excellent customer service. Increasingly, this is going to mean generating good “word of mouth” about the fact that you and your team are always prepared to go the extra mile. In turn, that’s going to take a presence on social media review sites and a strategy to go with it.
You may also find yourself needing new people and new workspaces, but you don’t want to commit yourself too much, so make sure you keep it as flexible as you can.
Open up in a new location
Businesses who sell to export markets are growing their profits more than those concentrating on domestic markets alone. So it’s worth considering expanding abroad as well as growing at home.
One of the main challenges faced by smaller businesses when expanding is finding the right workspace at the right price and on the right terms. Whether you’re growing at home or abroad, you can reduce your risks by plugging into networks of flexible workspace.
You can even set up a ‘virtual’ office that gives you a real physical presence but without the normal risks. Often, businesses in similar sectors prosper in proximity: Silicon Valley is only the most high-profile example. And don’t forget that there are many places where national and local government will give you financial support to help reduce your start up costs.
