A pivotal moment for any business is realising it may be time for expansion. After the hardships of being a startup, business expansion may seem daunting, so we have compiled the ultimate checklist to help you expand your business!
Is It The Right Time?
Before planning your expansion, you must ask yourself if it is the right time to do so, as expanding at the wrong time could lead to drastic consequences. A report by Entrepreneur shows some of the major companies that have lost strength due to their pre-emptive expansion.
Once you have done the market research and believe there is a demand for your expansion, it is time to prepare a severe checklist for how you plan to achieve it.
Make Sure Your Employees Are Ready
An expansion can be tremendously stressful for the business, negatively affecting employees. As an expansion tends to lead to increased workload, many employees may feel the added pressure in their roles.
Typically, a business expansion will result in more roles being added to the company, which could help reduce the workload of previous employees. However, this could also create a sense of job insecurity as more employees are now in similar roles.
It is key to have an internal discussion with your employees to ensure that everybody is on the same page about the business’s future.
Maintain The Culture
This leads us to another check on the list: making sure your company’s values aren’t changed in the expansion. As you are onboarding more employees and potentially a new demographic of customers, it may feel necessary to change your culture to reflect a broader market.
However, this could lead to the business losing sight of what made it successful in the first place and creating mixed messaging to existing customers. Remember that your culture and values made you successful in the first place, so make sure you continue those in the expansion.
Be Flexible
You should know by now that things rarely go according to plan in business, so you should expect the same with your expansion plans. For this reason, you must be flexible in how you operate the expansion.
Flexibility can help you deal with times when things aren’t going according to plan. You can instead look at the bigger picture without feeling upset. Flexibility is understanding that your business’s survival and continued running are more important than expansion.
You have to be flexible with your employees and listen to their concerns when they voice them. Be flexible in the services you provide them, whether a more flexible working schedule or a flexible working environment, such as a flexible workspace in London from BE Offices.
Many successful expanded companies have understood that the traditional working schedule isn’t always the best. That expansion sometimes requires employees to work at all hours of the day.
There, you will find some crucial tips and things to consider when planning to expand your business.