When you start a business for the first time it can feel like you’ve entered a whole new world, there are a lot of considerations to be made, and decisions that you never thought you’d be making.
But you quickly get used to this and eventually find yourself in a confident and hopefully successful position.
Before long, you will have a higher turnover than you imagined and start to think about expansion. It makes sense as the next step once you have outgrown your current plans and/ or premises.
But this step is a big one, and you will have to think about it carefully, since overstretching or running before you can walk is not the best way to make measured and sensible decisions.
So what can you do to make sure you don’t jump the gun and make mistakes during a planned expansion?
Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash
Research
Before even considering the move or expansion, you must research everything thoroughly. You have to make sure that the step is a good idea, and that it will be received well within your business and with your team.
There are plenty of things to consider, such as the number of costs your expansion will collect, the logistics and the overall time frames that the development will take.
The main idea here though is to make sure you know what it is you need to do to expand with as little disruption to your day to day running of the business.
Prepare
You don’t want your customers missing out, and potentially losing business and profits because of this decision.
But looking at companies like https://www.jayde.com.au/ for your transport requirements, finding a decent storage company to take care of your business tools while you are in the process of moving, and of course, telecommunications companies will need to be taken care of so that you don’t have any downtime during the changes.
The best way to make significant changes is carefully, and with thought otherwise, you may find yourself in hot water.
Plan
Plan your move or expansion like a military operation if you want it to go smoothly. There are no details that should be missed out.
What time are you going to make the switch over? What area are you moving to and are there any traffic restrictions?
And if you aren’t actually moving premises then consider the amount of change you are making and ensure you communicate every detail to those that need to know.
Suppliers, contractors, customers and staff. Also, don’t forget to update your actual business plan as well!
Execute
When executing your plans, you will need to be bold and work quickly once your plans are in place, make sure you have a contingency plan in place for anything that goes wrong and be careful to be realistic.
Still, executing the project you have put in place will be the most energy-consuming and time-consuming part, so remember to get as much help as possible, and you should find yourself well on the way to your bigger and better business.
Every business is different, and you have come too far to fail at this point, so always remember to be confident and do your research, twice if you have to.
Is business expansion on the horizon for you in 2020? Have you planned it all out carefully? Are you feeling prepared?
