Updated: May 20, 2013
This is the last part of this series. If you missed the first two parts, then you can read it here: Part 1 and Part 2.
We’ve finally come to the third and last installment of this series, which discusses the different opportunities you can take if you want to expand your business.
There are many directions you can choose if you want to grow your business and below are four options.
Moreover, I’m concluding this post with an important reminder that many entrepreneurs forget or overlook whenever they take their business to the next level.
Four Ways To Expand Your Business
Multiply your business through franchising
The main reason why you should build your business to run without the need for you to micromanage it, is because it makes it possible for you to open it to franchising opportunities.
There are many entrepreneurs who turn to and choose franchising over building their own business. Wouldn’t it be awesome if your business is among their choices?
If you want to take this option, I believe it’s best to consult a franchise consultancy firm so you can save time in learning the legalities of this opportunity; plus you’ll already have a ready partner in marketing your franchise business.
Expand your product and service offerings
Another common way to grow one’s business is to start selling new products and services to your customers. In fact, an essential part of managing a business is to adapt your offerings to the changing needs of your market.
Product research and development plays a crucial role in making this opportunity a viable and successful one; as well as designing an effective production system and installing new business processes.
If you want to go this route, it’s usually best to introduce the items first as a “special promo product”; so you can see how your market will receive it. Eventually, if there is a long-term demand for it, then you can make it as a permanent part of your offerings.
Create partnerships with other businesses
I consider this as the most affordable and probably the easiest way to expand your business. By forming partnerships, you can effectively increase the demand of your products without putting a significant increase in your sales and marketing costs.
One good example that comes to mind is a friend who owns a laundry shop. Apart from his usual customers in the neighborhood, he was able to secure partnerships with a handful of restaurants. Now, even if sales from walk-in customers are low, he still gets steady income from laundering table cloths and napkins everyday.
Grabbing this opportunity is often as simple as looking for businesses that will benefit from getting volume rates for your products or services.
Build or acquire a new business that strengthen your existing ones
This path is somehow related to the previous one. But instead of forming partnerships, you can acquire another business (or build a new one), which will help your existing one grow.
As an example, Google Inc., who mainly earns from advertising, bought YouTube LLC because they saw its potential back in 2006. Now, it is one of the most visited sites on the Internet and Google earns additional income from the advertising on each YouTube video that you watch.
While this option can be expensive, if done right, then it can definitely add a new dimension to your business. This is how most business tycoons became billionaires, and it’s something you can likewise do if you want to become one.
When Growing Your Business…
Expanding your business is a challenging task, but the financial rewards often make the difficulties worth it. And if you do decide to take your small enterprise to the “next level” – don’t forget to ask yourself these two questions:
- Will my target market change, expand or remain the same?
- Will my market reach change, expand or remain the same?
Remember that your sales and marketing strategies will need to adapt to the changes in your customer demographics. Furthermore, consider your production capacity and make sure that your business can handle the increase in product demand.
And this concludes this series on business expansion. I hope I was able to help you with learning the basics on how to grow your business.
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Growing Your Business Series:
- Reasons For Expanding Your Business: Growing Your Business Part 1
- Overcoming Obstacles in Business Expansion: Growing Your Business Part 2
- How To Expand Your Business: Growing Your Business Part 3
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Photo credits: emzee and dixiebellecupcakecafe
Thanks Fits for this mind opening series that you post.. hope there are more of this… 🙂
Thanks I enjoyed this series since I’ve been looking at options on expanding my business. I’m particularly leaning towards expanding offers and partnering with more business. The latter is actually what I’ve been doing for a few years. I just need to map out an aciton plan and sched and implement it.
Hi Fitz, this is really good article. I have only read about this (almost two years late!) however this topic is timeless. 🙂 Anyway, I have a question: How do I open a second location for a business? The main business is located in Metro Manila and my family would like to open a new branch in Sta. Rosa. I hope you can point me in the right direction. 🙂 More power to you and wishing you more success!
Thanks!
Hi Iona, my suggestion is to just open it as if it’s a new business. Follow the steps you did in the first branch. Once the second branch is stable, you can go through the legalities of consolidating the accounts of both branches.
For now, it would operate under a different registered name, which would be faster to do. You can use the same business name anyway, so branding is not affected.