If you’ve got past that tricky first year, congratulations – you’ve got further than many start-ups, so it’s likely that your business has a solid foundation.
Hopefully by now, things have smoothed out and you have built up a decent core of clients or customers. You may find yourself sitting back, taking a breather and enjoying the fruits of all of your hard work so far.
Or, you might find yourself sitting back, taking a breather and thinking ‘right – what next?’
While some are happy to keep a business small – and that’s fine – others will be wanting to press onto the next level. In fact, your business may demand it through organic growth.
If you want or need to expand your business, take a look at the following options:
Expand Your Team
Freelancers or sole traders often start to grow their business by expanding their team. There are, after all, only so many hours in the day, so if you find that you’re having to turn down work due to time constraints, or that you’re not fulfilling your business potential, now may be the time to become an employer.
This needn’t be a scary, time-consuming or complicated prospect. You could simply hire fellow freelancers and charge out their time at a higher rate than you are paying them.
If you do choose to employ someone however, you need to study the employer guidelines and ensure that you meet your responsibilities. You’ll find lots of information at www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers, as well as at the Business Link website.
Bringing in other team members will also allow you the time to look at other ways of expanding your business, perhaps by increasing your marketing campaign in order to build your customer base.
Expand Your Range
With a little lateral thinking it can often be fairly easy to see which products or services would complement your existing line. For example, a web design business may expand into also offering copywriting, website maintenance, marketing or other related services.
Expand Your Market
Once your core market is established, why not look at any other areas which can be expanded into? Sticking with the web design business example, perhaps you have been targeting a particular business type and are ready to diversify. Or you could even consider moving into a niche market, such as designing personal or family web pages or blogs.
Open Another Location
If you have a business that is confined to a particular location, then opening another premises elsewhere can be a great way to expand. Bear in mind however that you may well have to grow this business from scratch, and be prepared to put the work into your ‘secondary’ location.
Set up premises for less by purchasing all of your essential business equipment and stationery from Office Allsorts, which offers a low price guarantee.
Franchise Your Business
Franchising your business can bring vast returns, but you also have to be prepared to relinquish a certain amount of control.
On the whole, however, franchising can be a very shrewd move as people with a vested interest in the business are likely to work all the harder for mutual gains.
If you’re thinking about expanding then it’s time to pop the champagne corks and celebrate – you’ve come this far and there should be no reason why, with due care, you can’t take your business to the next level.
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