When it comes to expanding your business, you need to be confident that you can take on the challenges this expansion can throw at you without dropping the ball on your existing commitments. Growth isn’t always easy, and you must pay due diligence to the process and your business before taking these steps.
Expansion is a natural part of business, and as such, you should always be ready to expand your capacity. However, this post looks through some vital questions you should consider before taking the plunge to help you determine if you are prepared for this next step.
Can you meet current demands?
Jumping the gun before you are ready will impact your expansion plans and your existing operations. You need to be confident that you can consistently hit all your orders, targets and business requirements with ease now before stretching yourself. Before you even think about doing more and serving more people, can you cope with your current workload now? Are your staff thoroughly trained and able to cope with current demands? Can your systems help you to remain reliable and consistent? Is there anywhere you are slacking and need to address first? Pay attention to this before you think about moving up a gear.
Can you physically accommodate expansion?
How big are your current premises, and how well can you cope with demand as you are? Tying into the point above, how will you handle increased requests if your location and premises can’t manage what you are doing now? Do you need to look into a more significant location, or do you need a second location? Does your warehouse have space for additional inventory, or will you need another structure like an Industrial Shed? It is pointless trying to expand if you don’t have the space to do so, as this will lead to confusion and, inevitably, the ball being dropped somewhere along the line.
Can you financially support your plans?
Exactly how well are you doing financially, and can you take the hit if something unexpected pops up? You need to be confident that you are pulling in the revenue and profits you can sustain and will keep your initial operations running while you push through with your new plans. The last thing you want is to permit an uptick in business only to find it tails off after a short period of time, leaving you with a bigger enterprise and no custom to support it.
Use your data to identify patterns and triggers for any uptake in business. Will this likely be a seasonal fluctuation (i.e. retail during the holiday season), or are people jumping on a new trend that will eventually run its course? Look back at your profits, examine how well you are doing, and identify any patterns that help you make a firm decision on expansion to avoid making a massive mistake.
Conclusion
Expansion is part and parcel of running a business. Still, a successful expansion depends on business owners knowing their business and their industry and looking at the situation objectively to ensure that any decision they make to up the stakes is made for the right reasons when the company is ready, not to satisfy a whim.
