Is it time to expand your business? How do you know?
Small businesses tend to stay small because they don’t know the answers to these two crucial questions. Here’s how to know when you have room to grow and what to do about it.
You Have Loyal Customers
When you have loyal customers, you have a good support base from which to grow. Loyal customers are those customers who bring you a steady income. In other words, they’re you’re “bread and butter”. When all else fails, they won’t.
A loyal customer base is also a good signal for growth because those customers can be tapped for referrals. Ask them. If they’re happy with your company, they will refer you to their friends and family.
You Have Revenues That Support Growth
When your revenues are ready to support additional growth, you’ll know. One telltale sign is that you’re able to start saving more than 25 percent of your revenues as profit. Usually, this is enough money to hire another employee, rent another facility, upgrade equipment, or expand in some other way.
But, this level of profit is also sufficient to take on another loan from an Equipment Refinancing Services provider. Companies like BCBL, which primarily deals in bad credit small business loans, can help you sell invoices and qualify for credit when you might not otherwise qualify through a bank.
A cash advance, or factoring, is a financing scheme where you agree to sell your invoices for cash now – a great way to quickly raise the money you need for business growth.
You Have a Good Base Of Employees
When you’re confident enough in your employees to run the show without you being there to watch over them, it’s time to think about expanding your operations. Set up a manager for one store location and then open up another. Rinse and repeat.
Your Industry Or Market Is Growing
When your industry is experiencing an overall growth spurt, you might want to consider jumping on the bandwagon. Why? Because overall growth means that there’s room for more sales. People are spending more with your industry and desire the kinds of products and services you’re offering.
You Have More Business Than You Can Currently Handle
If you have more business than you can currently handle, it means you need more employees to service customers. This can be a tough thing to manage initially because the extra employee may temporarily put you in the red. This is especially true if you’re right on the edge of having too much business and not enough.
You may have to step it up a bit and put in extra hours (and ask your top tier employees to do the same) before hiring another dedicated staff member.
You’re Running Out Of Space
This is almost obvious. If you’re busting at the seams, it might be time to buy another office or at least a storage facility so that you have more physical room to grow your business. Fortunately, this is a great problem to have and it’s easy to do: go out and buy more space.
Dennis Firth is a consultant for businesses. He likes to write about his experiences to post online. Look for his articles on many finance and business websites.
