If you have built up a prosperous business over the past few years, you may be keen to capitalise on your success and strive for expansion – domestically, but also potentially overseas. This can be an exciting and challenging team as you consider your best options and begin planning the growth of your enterprise.
However, there are a number of vital considerations you should take into account to help you lay a solid foundation that will contribute to your expansion activities. Read on to discover what they are and how to implement them in your business plan going forward, to give your company the best chance of success as you enter new waters.
Focus On Forging Fruitful Alliances
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Over the past few years, as you have been churning all of your energy into getting your business off the ground and turning it into a success, you have probably been focusing predominantly on your customers. While this is a crucial approach, particularly in the early stages of developing a company, you shouldn’t forget about the importance of building helpful contacts in your industry.
As you turn your focus to expansion, it’s a good idea to simultaneously expand your network of business contacts, especially if you are planning to take your brand overseas. Make sure you attend industry events and conferences, establish a variety of contacts, and consider acquiring a mentor who can help you craft a road map for your international growth.
Forging fruitful partnerships with new collaborators overseas will help to make your transition easier. They can offer advice on the legal processes of establishing your brand in their home country and provide essential documents you may require to acquire the appropriate registration and licensing.
If any official forms or correspondence are not available in English, a translation agency can quickly and accurately translate them for you. For example, Rosetta Translation specialise in high-quality document translation and other language services; they also provide multi-sector expertise, so your industry is sure to be covered by their knowledge base.
Funding Is Key
Arguably the most important element of your expansion is your finances.
Before you even begin developing your growth plan, you should assess your financial situation and make sure you have the capital required to successfully expand.
If any additional funds are required, you have a few different options to help you fill your coffers. These range from claiming for R&D tax credits – something which companies from a range of sectors can do, particularly businesses with a focus on agriculture, science, and tech.
You can also explore the availability of bank loans or government grants related to your niche, and you may wish to seriously consider the prospect of equity investing and debt funding. The latter two can be used side by side to help boost your funds.
As you can see, there are a number of funding options available, so it’s a good idea to do your homework and find out which may work best for your business.
Assess What Your Customers Really Want
To help you craft profitable marketing strategies that will help your brand flourish during your period of expansion, it’s a great idea to evaluate what has already been successful thus far. To do this, assess what products or innovations your existing customers have appreciated, and consider carrying out surveys to find out what their views are and what else you could offer them that would prove particularly useful or appealing.
The results of this fact-finding will help you understand which products or services are most popular, which will, in turn, allow you to devote time and funds to creating marketing campaigns that are more likely to be effective.
Strengthen Your Online Presence
Although your company may not currently have an eCommerce platform, you should still focus on developing and expanding your online presence. This will help you lay the groundwork for your expansion and could prove invaluable to promoting your products and services to a wider audience and hopefully boosting your conversion rates.
Here are some methods you can use to strengthen your brand’s online standing and help improve customer engagement:
Open Social Media Accounts For Your Business
If you haven’t already done this, it’s vital that you create social media accounts for your brand, and make sure you post content regularly – whether it’s pictures, text, or even videos. This will help to cement your brand identity and will drive up your levels of consumer engagement exponentially. Just make sure you keep all your content positive and interesting.
If you are concerned about taking this task on yourself, you may wish to consider hiring a social media executive who can take care of posting content across your various accounts, from Facebook to Instagram.
Grab Attention With Giveaways
Giveaways are highly popular marketing tools that rarely fail to grab the attention of your target audience. They can also help to raise awareness of your products, which could help you acquire new customers.
For example, if you post details of your giveaways on social media accounts, these announcements may be reposted a number of times to other people’s accounts. These posts will then be viewed by all of their followers or friends, and potentially reposted further. This will help to expand your reach and enable you to reach potential consumers you may not otherwise have been able to access.
Keep Your Customers Updated
As well as posting regular updates on social media, you may also wish to create a weekly or monthly newsletter that can be emailed to your customers. Not everyone has social media, so this will reach those who don’t. In these emails, you can provide attention-grabbing news about your latest offers, products, and services, and address your customers directly, which can help to enhance your brand integrity.
Build The Right Team
Last but certainly not least, as you set your sights on expansion – whether domestically or abroad – it’s vital that you surround yourself with a team of dedicated and knowledgeable professionals who can help you make your vision a reality.
Don’t be afraid to diversify when it comes to hiring, rather than simply taking on people with the same set of talents or experience. This can help your business acquire a more varied and beneficial skillset that could be an integral part of making your expansion a success.
