When it comes to entrepreneurs and business owners, two of the biggest goals involving them are always said to be expansion and growth. The biggest question, however, is how you will be able to expand your own business in any kind of a slow-growing economy.
Here are three of the most useful tips to consider making note of when it comes to being able to successfully expand your business.
*First and foremost, perhaps one of the most useful tips to help with expanding your business is to take the time to target new customer markets. Many businesses will often target all of their marketing and sales efforts toward certain customer markets based on factors such as gender, location, and age, as well as activities, values, and interests; however, it’s also important to think about customer markets that may possibly be viable for all of your services and products. According to one expert, “being able to reach the right target customers through the right mediums, at the right time, is the first step to expanding your business into new customer markets. When expanding into new target markets, you need to ramp up your advertising to these markets. This is pretty intuitive, but it’s true.”
*Another useful tip to help with expanding your business is to add new services and products. While something like this always sounds simple, the truth is that being able to execute it well can be rather challenging. Not only will you first need to determine exactly which products and services your customers will actually want, but you will also need to figure out exactly how much money they’ll be willing to pay for them. Additionally, you will also need to figure out whether or not you will be able to sell everything at a profit. Perhaps the most effective way to accomplish this is to conduct extensive market research prior to committing any resources to any new product or service expansions. Take the time to speak to your current customers and ask them what they think about all of your new products and services, including any and all possible price points for them. Keep in mind that your research will need to focus on overall customer demand, as well as the cost to manufacture, deliver, and sell.
*One other great tip to help with expanding your business is to expand into brand new territories. The general idea with this is to both market and sell your current products and services to new customers, who can be in different locations or niches from where you presently operate. Additionally, if your business is either a storefront or retail location, then this kind of expansion will more than likely involve opening new locations in different geographic areas, regardless of whether it’s across the country or across town. No matter the location, doing so will require a decent amount of investment of both money and time on your part. According to one expert, “when you are thinking about expanding into new areas, the first thing you need to do is to determine how to specialize your advertising for your new market. If you can’t convey the benefits of your product or service to residents of a new region, you’re going to struggle to make it. Be honest about flaws and strengths as you consider the message you will be conveying to a new area.”