How to Expand Your Business: 7 Steps to Success

Ambitiousness is an essential trait of a successful entrepreneur. But having big ambitions alone isn’t enough. You need to have a road map in place to guide your journey towards actualizing your dreams and ambitions. Rapid business growth can inhibit business longevity by forcing you to take costly and uncalculated risks, hence becoming a victim of your success. That’s why you need to know the right time to scale up or expand to the next level.

You will know that the time is ripe for taking the plunge through these 3 key indicators:

• Your current workforce is swamped and can’t handle the workload effectively. That is a sign that you’re getting more business than your company can handle at the moment. You need to expand the business and bring in more workers and technologies to handle the extra workload.
• You’re turning down new opportunities because bringing them on board might jeopardize your ability to serve the existing customers. That means more prospective customers are interested in your products or services. You need to build your capacity and pursue those leads before they evaporate.
• Your long-term business goals are taking too long to materialize. You probably are struggling to achieve them because you don’t have the right resources- both human resources and technologies.  That, by extension, means you lack the capacity to take full advantage of growth opportunities at your disposal.

Whichever sector or industry your business operates in, here are 7 steps to adapt your business to changing demands and expand it without becoming a victim of your own success:

1. Conduct a thorough market research

Your decision to expand should be based on thorough market research for 3 reasons.

First, if you intend to penetrate a totally new market, especially overseas, you need to understand the marketing trends in that market. It’s through research that you’re able to know the dominant language in the new market, the culture, and best packaging practices.

Secondly, research helps you understand the pain points that your products/services can solve in the new market. Thirdly, market research will help you understand your new competition, which is how you will maintain your company’s competitive edge.

Your research should focus more on:

• Brand awareness: How can you build brand awareness in new markets?
• Competitive comparisons: Where does your company stand in comparison with the existing competition?
• Brand perception: How are your company’s logos, colors, brochures, social media pages, websites, etc. perceived in your current market? Do you need to tweak some details to improve public perception?
• Customers: How old are they? What’s their purchase power? Where do they live? Where do they spend most of their social media time?
• The effectiveness of your current marketing strategies. How well does your marketing message reach and resonate with your audience? What needs to be changed or improved in the messaging or means of delivery of your brand message?
• New market opportunities: Which geographic regions or social demographics are underserved and ripe for your business expansion?
• Market size: You need to size up a new market before investing in an expansion in order to get optimal value for money.

2. Create an expansion plan

A business plan for expansion is the roadmap for your expansion plans. The plan should be based on the research findings above. It should specify the opportunities you need to exploit, how you’re going to exploit them, and how you’ll navigate potential risks. That’s what will set the stage for long-term growth and sustainability in new markets.

3. Build a strong team

You will need a unique skill set and talents to help you roll out the expansion plan. That’s why you need to hire new employees who have the right mindset and a spirit of entrepreneurship. Among other talents, you need a customer support team that fully understands your business model and the needs of the target customer. If you’re expanding internationally, you need a team of bilingual customer care agents who can bridge communication gaps between your brand and the target customer. You also need a sales and marketing team that’s both efficient and empathetic to customer needs. The team should be able to drive demand without overspending in order to keep your company’s profit margins high. You will also need a strong IT personnel and social media team for effective digital marketing.

4. Bring in the tech

Getting the right tools and technology will optimize your team’s efficiency. You will be able to expand without needing to hire an unsustainably big team. Some of the tech tools that you need for effective expansion include:

• A communications platform that supports phone calls, instant messaging, and video meetings.
• A collaboration tool that enables your teams from different cities or countries to collaborate effectively.
• Workflow management tool.
• A customer relationship management (CRM) system.
• Big data analysis tool that you can use to analyze large and varied amounts of data with utmost accuracy. The tool should be able to analyze customer preferences and market trends, as well as predict hidden patterns in the market.

5. Grow market reach

You will grow your company’s market reach through:

• Adding new offerings to optimize your existing market.
• Claiming a niche market by narrowing down your products or services to a very specific demographic.
• Building brand loyalty by offering incentives to the existing clientele.
• Marketing to new customers in new markets.
• Broadening your distribution channels to reach underserved markets.
• Using targeted marketing campaigns to address specific demographics.
• Making your products available for purchase online by investing in an e-commerce website.
• Stepping up your SEO and digital advertising efforts.
• Partnering with businesses whose products or services complement your products or services.
• Franchising.

6. Build your online presence

Improving your company’s online presence will make it easy for prospective customers to find your business on the Internet. Online clients search for keywords on Google or social media when shopping for what they need. Optimizing those keywords across your online platforms makes your brand more visible and discoverable to potential online clients. To boost your online presence:

• Build a professional website and optimize it with the help of a search engine optimization (SEO) agency.
• Create and optimize your accounts on social media platforms.
• Create and optimize your Google My Business listing.
• Invest in local SEO.
• Keep your online messaging simple, original, relevant, helpful, and consistent.
• Build and maintain your online brand reputation and credibility by delivering on all your brand promises.
• Work with niche influencers to reach and build trust with potential new customers.
• Focus on customer experience by providing personalized experiences.
• Create more video content to make your social media message more engaging, relatable, and shareable.
• Automate online customer service using chatbots and other digital tools.

7. Foster international growth

For global expansion, you’re going to need an international strategy. The strategy should include a plan for integrating foreign currencies, international business registration, language translation, hiring international workers, etc. If you’re expanding to Hong Kong, for example, you must understand Hong Kong business registration processes and abide by all relevant laws and regulations for a smooth expansion. You’ll need to understand the process of setting up a bank account for foreign businesses, the process of acquiring visas and/or work permits, and how to register a trademark in Hong Kong. You also need to understand:

• The local culture and customs in relation to your business model.
• How the local political and economic situation may affect your business.
• The legal (e.g. employment laws) and tax issues.
• Security issues in the country.
• The provisions of trade missions, embassies or consulates, and chambers of commerce in the foreign market. How can they benefit your business?
• Your funding and insurance options.
• Best hiring practices.

Business expansion requires you to think and strategize unconventionally and innovatively- both for your branding and marketing. Your success will also largely depend on how well you understand the market. This necessitates thorough market research. Of course, expanding your business to new markets inherently carries risk, but you will have a higher shot at success if you have the right strategy.

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