- The most efficient business expansion strategy
- Why infrastructure matters when expanding your business
- What’s the best way to support your expansion?
Q: Should I worry about business expansion? How will I know the time is right for my business to start worrying about expansion?
A: Business expansion is an indispensable aspect of any company hoping to achieve long-term success. Building a strong business infrastructure and ensuring that your operations can handle the added volume is paramount to succeeding in business expansion. With a virtual office, your business can build out its infrastructure and prepare for the additional volume without risking the capital that was previously expected from traditional businesses.
The idea of conquering new markets is intoxicating to any business owner hoping to lead a successful organization.
Striving for new customers, new geography, and more profits can lead even the most established entrepreneur to make hasty decisions on the ever-present quest for business expansion.
All too often, business owners hoping to strike gold will create an unfinished business expansion strategy that leads to disastrous effects for their existing business and prevents them from completing their expansion.
So, how can you effectively handle business expansion without falling prey to the pitfalls typically associated with this growth?
The answer is by remaining flexible and knowing when you are ready for growth. Similarly, you need to create a business expansion plan that caters to your strengths and prevents weaknesses from stopping you in your tracks.
In this article, we’ll look at the most efficient business expansion strategy, the importance of a robust infrastructure, and the best way to support your expansion.
Additionally, we’ll look at the various kinds of business expansion and provide some essential information about these different methods as we explore what makes targeting new markets the best approach.
- The most efficient business expansion strategy
- Why infrastructure matters when expanding your business
- What’s the best way to support your expansion?
The most efficient business expansion strategy
Business expansion refers to any growth in a business’s revenue or offerings.
Because of this incredibly open-ended definition, there are several ways that you can prepare your brand for the difficulties of small business growth.
Below, we’ve listed various kinds of business growth that fall under the vague meaning of the term:
1. Introduction of new products
This kind of business expansion relies on your development of new products that you can take to market. Introducing new products typically requires sizable capital because of the research and development phases in conjunction with testing the market’s reaction to the new products.
2. Licensing
Licensing can be an incredibly profitable way to expand your business, but if you’re not providing a proprietary service or product, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to effectively profit from any licensing deals.
3. Franchising
Similar to licensing, you would have to have a very specific kind of business for franchising to be an effective method of business expansion. While franchising might be good for a restaurant or retail store, it probably isn’t going to be the most effective method for more modern digital businesses.
4. Targeting new markets with existing offerings
This is almost always going to be your safest and most effective bet. Targeting new markets with your existing offerings doesn’t require research and development or patent know-how like the other kinds of business expansion.
The most common kind of business expansion opportunities come from simply introducing your existing business to new markets
Because you’re not coming up with any new products, this requires less building and less innovation while still allowing your business to tap into new revenue and capital.
Approximately 71% of American adults are chiefly concerned with addressing our weakened economy.
As more of the public continues to ask the government for guidance, the companies that successfully manage their business expansion will be rewarded once the economy is back on its feet.
Read more: Public’s Top Priority for 2022: Strengthening the Nation’s Economy
To stand out amid our worsening economy, you’ll need to take the most cost-effective and low-risk business expansion ideas to heart.
In the past, targeting a new market with your existing offerings relied on opening new physical locations, an expensive and risky move in any kind of market.
Thankfully, approaching this kind of business expansion in the modern market is less risky.
Digital marketing allows businesses to tap new markets by leveraging their existing customer base and finding similar niches throughout the world. Thanks to the precision of online advertising, connecting with ideal customers is cost-effective and simple.
With the right digital marketing initiative, you’re unrestricted by geography and able to connect to your target market anywhere.
That said, businesses must prepare for this kind of expansion.
If you don’t have a business expansion plan prepared for how you intend on handling this growth, you’ll likely hit barriers that limit your opportunities.
This could be a decline in the quality of your products due to the influx of business, long lead times for products you’ve promised customers, poor inventory management, or a loss of reputation because of a combination of these things.
Regardless of what could be your downfall; sound infrastructure and a detailed business expansion plan will ensure that you don’t have any of these issues.
Why infrastructure matters when expanding your business
Before you start acting on your business expansion ideas, you need to build your company’s infrastructure up so you can handle the added business.
As things ramp up, you’ll be busier than ever. With so much going on around you, you won’t have time or clarity to worry about the supporting structures you need to scale.
Small business owners are in a situation different from the majority of larger businesses because the inventory and staffing requirements are considerably less prohibitive than they are for larger companies.
Similarly, small business owners have less that they need to focus on than bigger corporations.
Read more: The lesson for Main Street from the Walmart, Target inventory failures
By identifying weak points within your business and taking the necessary steps to rectify these issues, you’re giving your brand a fighting edge against competitors.
Trying to expand without spending the necessary time on building your business infrastructure guarantees a slew of issues for your company.
Therefore, it’s key to have these things built out before executing your business expansion strategy.
Read more: The 6 Ways to Grow a Company
Here are three critical aspects of your business infrastructure that you need to examine before focusing on business expansion:
- Capital
- Flexibility
- Team capacity for growth
Capital
Before you start thinking about growing your business, you’ll first need to consider the capital you have to work with.
To start, you’ll need to have an efficient business structure that frees capital for you to invest in your online growth strategy. If your turnaround times are long and money isn’t flowing quickly enough, it’ll be more difficult to allocate funds to the necessary customer acquisition initiatives.
Once your business structure is efficient enough and provides a freer cash flow, you’ll be able to quickly reach new customers and see returns in a short timeframe.
Flexibility
Modern technology is moving at lightning speed. Every year, we achieve new things that didn’t even seem possible a few decades ago.
To keep up with this ever-changing market, your business must be flexible.
A flexible business can adapt as it goes without having to reorganize all of its operations to keep up with the times. If you’re tied to a traditional office and trying to wrangle two markets at once, you’ll have a more difficult time keeping up with the competition.
The world of ecommerce is fast-paced and unforgiving. If your business is unable to react to changes in the market, you’ll always fall behind.
Capacity for team growth
Lastly, your team’s ability to grow is a key point of your infrastructure that you’ll want to put some serious thought into before you try and expand.
Your business should be structured so new employees are easily brought in whenever necessary, without a lengthy and complicated training or onboarding process.
With the additional volume brought to your operations via business expansion, the ability to make new hires fast is invaluable. Your growing business can quickly move beyond the scope of your existing team, and when that happens, you want to have the ability to add new team members easily to avoid dips in customer satisfaction.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to worry about obstacles and have extra capital to spare, you could consider simply purchasing a small business that already has a strong infrastructure in place.
Allowing another company to handle the heavy lifting associated with building a strong business infrastructure lets you focus on the most important aspect of running any business: profit.
Read more: Your Shortcut to New Success: How to Buy a Small Business
A robust business infrastructure allows you to handle the stresses of business expansion and makes the already difficult task of keeping up with new demand much easier.
What’s the best way to support your expansion?
In the modern world, it can be difficult to balance all of these elements at once. You need a modern solution that keeps you agile while also allowing you the convenience and utility of a dedicated work and meeting space.
Alliance Virtual Offices provides the perfect solution. Our virtual offices are cost-efficient, loaded with amenities, and easy to secure.
With a virtual office, you are no longer limited by traditional office space or the confines of your home.
Below, we’ve listed some key reasons that a virtual office is necessary for effective business expansion.
- Flexibility allows you to work anywhere
- Streamlined onboarding processes
- Highly cost-efficient
- Lends professionality to your operations
- Built to scale
- Access to physical workspace
Flexibility
One of the pitfalls associated with remote work is the burnout that many entrepreneurs face after spending months inside working on their computers.
Sure, the productivity of remote workers is typically much higher than the productivity of traditional office workers, but spending so much time working in the same area you rest, relax, and feed yourself can have terrible effects on any individual’s psyche.
With a virtual office, you’re giving your business the flexibility it needs to react to the ebbs and flows of the market without sacrificing a central hub for your operations. You get all of the benefits of a traditional office without being tied to one location.
Streamlined onboarding processes
Sturdy business infrastructure is key to any business expansion strategy. With a virtual office, you can make meetings and training easier and more convenient.
You’re able to work remotely without having to worry about where to host in-person events. Plus, on-demand meeting rooms mean that you can quickly book a space to meet with employees or clients, no matter how busy you are.
Remote work support also means that you can hire employees from anywhere in the country, making it easy to grow your team as your business scales.
Because of the flexibility afforded by a virtual office, there’s no relocating that needs to be done for faraway employees. The faster that new employees can get to work and coalesce with the existing team, the more you’ll be able to focus on business expansion.
Highly cost-efficient
The high price of traditional business expansion makes exploring new markets prohibitively expensive, with a virtual office, this isn’t a concern.
A virtual office saves you money and allows you to keep investing in marketing to reach new customers. This lets you build your business faster without having to sacrifice the professionalism of traditional office space.
Alliance Virtual Office gives business owners the chance to preserve capital and reinvest the savings into expanding their operations.
Lends professionality to your business
One of the biggest benefits to having a virtual office is the reputation your business is lent from using a well-known and professionally recognized address.
If your financial services business is registered to an address that’s also used by Staples in Kansas, you likely won’t get the same attention that registering in New York’s financial district would give you.
For all businesses, image is everything. With Alliance, all of our virtual offices are tied to professional addresses in established and industry-leading locations.
Finding ways to add legitimacy to your business is important even outside of business expansion. Alliance allows your business to stand out in a sea of competitors.
Built to scale
Alliance’s virtual offices are the perfect way to prepare for future business expansion.
The ease and convenience of securing a new location make virtual offices the perfect way to break into new markets with your existing offerings.
Traditionally, this form of business expansion had serious capital requirements. Now, with a virtual office and digital marketing, you can connect with your target demographic without risking as much as was previously expected.
Access to a physical workspace
While remote operations are undoubtedly the best way to focus on business expansion, that doesn’t mean you should forego any access to a workspace outside of your home.
Finding a routine is nice, but if you’re hoping to run a business, expand that business, eat, sleep, and relax, all from the same location, you will undoubtedly find yourself going a bit stir-crazy.
With one of Alliance’s virtual offices, you’re able to focus on your remote operations while giving yourself a place you can go to break the dullness of your day-to-day work-from-home routine.
In addition to the physical workspaces, you also have access to meeting rooms of varying sizes. With these meeting rooms, you no longer have to use crowded coffee shops or expensive hotel conference rooms to host important meetings.
Training meetings, employee get-togethers, and investor meetings can be handled in the privacy of your own space. The helpful and friendly onsite staff ensure that any technical difficulties will be promptly dealt with as well.
Business expansion is a risk no matter how you look at it. Alliance’s virtual offices simply negate a considerable amount of that risk and give you a fighting chance to stand out among countless competitors and increasingly picky consumers.
Alliance Virtual Offices gives your business a scalable, cost-efficient, and professional way to expand without sacrificing any of the flexibility that remote work is known for.
With a central hub for your operations and access to meeting rooms, physical workspaces, and locations in every state, there is no limit to how far your business expansion can take you.
Leveraging your virtual office for business expansion
Thanks to the dominance of e-commerce, business expansion has never been a more accessible or lower risk.
That said, it’s crucial to set your business up for success before you attempt to tap into new markets.
A virtual office is an ideal way to support your business as it scales into the future. Other virtual office solutions lack the benefits that Alliance provides.
Whether it be less-than-professional addresses, addresses with no physical backing, glorified mail forwarding services, or virtual offices that provide no access to a workspace, other virtual offices simply don’t have the means to properly leverage their services towards your business’s expansion.
With approximately 90% positive reviews on TrustPilot, our commitment to your brand’s success is proven.
An Alliance Virtual Office is designed for established entrepreneurs hoping to take their business worldwide.
With Alliance, you’re given all the tools you need to succeed.
All that you need to focus on is building a robust business infrastructure to handle the extra work that comes with small business growth and finding the right digital marketing agency to help you reach your target demographic in new areas.
Further Reading
- Public’s Top Priority for 2022: Strengthening the Nation’s Economy
- The 6 Ways to grow a Company
- Your Shortcut To New Success – How To Buy A Small Business
- The lesson for Main Street from the Walmart, Target inventory failures
Alliance Virtual Offices provides several solutions for entrepreneurs focusing on business growth.
With one of our virtual offices, you get access to a professional and well-known address that is backed by an always-available physical workspace.
The pitfalls previously associated with small business growth are a thing of the past. Alliance’s virtual offices are the perfect central hub to launch your personalized business expansion strategy and being surrounded by other established and serious entrepreneurs provides the perfect environment for your company to focus on growth.
Surrounding yourself with other individuals hoping to expand allows you to learn from your peers and get valuable insight into what is working for them and what is not.
Aside from the professional environments provided by Alliance’s virtual offices, there are several other solutions that we offer to the motivated business owner.
With a Live Receptionist, stressing about missed customer phone calls is a thing of the past. This friendly and reliable service ensures that all of your phone calls are screened, meaning you’ll never miss or have to multi-task through an important phone call again.
Whether you’re an established entrepreneur trying to corner a brand-new market, a traditional business owner hoping to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the exploding e-commerce market, or a fledgling entrepreneur hoping to make a name for yourself, Alliance Virtual Offices has you covered.
From virtual offices to secure and private business phone numbers, we’re here to ensure that your business has the tools it needs to succeed.
Contact us today to see how our services can assist you throughout your business expansion.
