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10 Ways to Grow Your Business For those of you who have survived startup and built successful businesses, you may be wondering how to take the next step and grow your business beyond its current status. There are numerous possibilities, 10 of which we'll outline here. Choosing the proper one (or ones) for your business will depend on the type of business you own, your available resources, and how much money, time and sweat equity you're willing to invest all over again. If you're ready to grow, we're ready to help. 1. Open another location. This might not be your best choice for business expansion, but it's listed first here because that's what often comes to mind first for so many entrepreneurs considering expansion. " Make sure you're maintaining a consistent bottom-line profit and that you've shown steady growth over the past few years. Look at the trends, both economic and consumer, for indications on your company's staying power. Make sure your administrative systems and management team are extraordinary—you'll need them to get a new location up and running. Prepare a complete business plan for a new location. 2. Offer your business as a franchise or business opportunity. When people or employee’s have a vested interest in their work, they enjoy it more, bring more to the table and are more successful overall. Franchising is a perfect system to accomplish those goals. 3. License your product. This can be an effective, low-cost growth medium, particularly if you have a service product or branded product. Licensing also minimizes your risk and is low cost in comparison to the price of starting your own company to produce and sell your brand or product. To find a licensing partner, start by researching companies that provide products or services similar to your product line. Before you set up a meeting or contact any company, find a competent attorney who specializes in intellectual property rights. This is the best way to minimize the risk of losing control of your service or product. 4. Form an alliance. Aligning yourself with a similar type of business can be a powerful way to expand quickly
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5. Diversify. Small-business consultant McGuckin offers several ideas for diversifying your product or service line: Sell complementary products or services Teach adult education or other types of classes Import or export yours or others' products Become a paid speaker or columnist 6. Target other markets. Your current market is serving you well. Are there others? 7. Win a government contract. "The best way for a small business to grow is to have the federal government as a customer Working with your local SBA and SBDC offices as well as the Service Corps of Retired Executives and your local, regional or state Economic Development Agency will help you determine the types of contracts available to you. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the SBA also have a Business Matchmaking Program designed to match entrepreneurs with buyers. "A fair amount of patience is required in working to secure most government contracts," says Johnson & Wales University's Bennett. "Requests for proposals usually require a significant amount of groundwork and research. If you're not prepared to take the time to fully comply with RFP terms and conditions, you'll only be wasting your time." 8. Merge with or acquire another business. I Scooping up the bankrupt company, divine Inc., from the auction block was the easy part; then came the integration of the two companies. Customer retention. Staff retention Melding technologies. 9. Expand globally But you don't need to acquire another business to expand globally. You just need to prime your offering for an international market 10. Expand to the Internet. How do you know if you have low motivation and low goals in life Tips for writing a good getting resume |
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