So your business is doing well. You’ve been consistently destroying your sales targets. You’ve built a loyal following of repeating and recommending customers. You’ve created a brand that’s now recognizable and trusted. Now, you’re wondering what the next step is.
You may sit on your laurels and enjoy this continuous success. But as any expert in any industry can tell you, stagnation is never a good idea for businesses.
Your only way is forward. But there are a lot of expansion options for you. Learn more about these options and figure out what’s best for your business. According to Forbes, you can try one or all of these depending on your willingness to take on risk.
New Products
Expansion doesn’t always mean moving into a bigger place or hiring more people. On the contrary, many expansion options simply involve reinvestment in products and processes.
- Creating new products that are targeted to your existing customers is one of the simpler expansion strategies, especially if you’ve already been planning about this for some time now. Like with all sales and marketing strategies, this requires an excellent grasp of your target demographic. If you’re a shoe company, for example, and your most popular products are sneakers aimed at young adults, it would make sense to think of products targeted at them as well – like trendy socks or maybe shoe-cleaning kits.
- Investing in research into your existing products and processes may also lead you to improvements to your current system. You may expand by creating a newer, better version of your current products. This is especially effective for those in the tech industry. Developing a more efficient version of an app will resonate well with your clients – old and new.
New Markets
Exploring new markets is one of the most common expansion strategies. You’re effectively broadening your reach and giving your business more chances of succeeding. But this expansion strategy is also prone to risk.
- New products can also lead to new markets. If you’re creating completely new products that don’t necessarily only target your existing customer-base, you’re effectively selling to new markets. The importance of market research and understanding this new market cannot be stressed enough. Your marketing strategies will need to target this new demographic in a way that won’t alienate your current one. When done right, you’ll be able to expand and maybe even double your customer numbers and sales.
- Targeting a new location is also a common expansion strategy. After experiencing success in your first area, you may want to look into opening another shop in a different location. Keep in mind that if you’re going to sell the same products, the new location has be populated enough by the same demographic, too.
- Starting your own franchise can also be an example of targeting new markets. By banking on your brand, you can seek investment and start a chain of your business. There are a lot of experts that can teach you how to franchise your business.
New Industries
Lastly, you can also explore new industries. In business, reducing risk takes experience and planning. When you’re entering a new industry, you’re taking on new kinds of risks that your experience may not have prepared you to deal with. A lot of research and planning need to be done before making this move. You can also approach a business in that industry to seek a partnership for a specific venture to test out your expansion.