When your business is going well, it is likely that your next thought will be about expanding things to reach even more people. While this is probably a great idea, it’s important to make sure that you have the right things in place before making such a huge transition. Thinking out your expansion plan before you start on it will give you the tools you need to move forward successfully. 

What Your Market Research Says 

Before you can see if you will be successful in expanding your business, you need to know what the market looks like. This is because making a mistake with your business growth can put you in a bad situation that is difficult or even impossible to recover from. Market research can help you to know the best way to grow and what paths are likely to be most successful. In your research you should look at your own customers as well as similar companies so you have a good idea of what will work well for you. 

Source: https://blog.alexa.com/how-to-do-market-research/

The Costs of Hiring 

Expanding will most likely mean hiring new people, so you need to be aware of what those costs look like. You won’t only be responsible for paying the salary of new employees, there are also tax and insurance needs that you will need to take care of. Every state but Texas requires you to buy workers’ compensation insurance for employees. By doing the work first to understand your upcoming costs, you can figure out how to best fit them into your budget as you start to grow your company. 

Source: https://barnesdisability.com/workers-comp.php

Set Clear Goals 

You can’t just head out there and plan to grow your company without anything specific in mind. That kind of strategy will land you and your business in serious hot water. Instead, you want to make sure to set clear goals that will help you determine the success of your project. These goals should be measurable and recognizable, and you should plan in benchmarks to help you evaluate how things are going. With clear goals in mind, you will be in a much better place to make great things happen with your business. 

Source: https://experience.dropbox.com/resources/small-business-growth-strategies

The decision to grow your business is a big one. But if you go about it in a smart and systematic way, you can control that growth and make a huge step for your business. Now is a good time to start thinking about how to grow your business and what you should do to make that happen.

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