When a business is successful, the natural next step is to expand and build upon that success. The issue, however, is that success is not guaranteed. You can open up a new store on the other side of the city and not see the revenues you expected. This is doubly true when you expand into new markets.
That’s why it’s important to keep these top tips and considerations in mind when you start to expand:
What to Consider When Expanding
There are many factors to consider when expanding, especially into other states or across national borders. While catering to the global community is a great way to bring in revenue and help stabilize your business since it won’t entirely depend on one market, there are many pitfalls that are easy to fall into.
Supply Chains
Unless you’re expanding locally, you’ll want to consider your supply chain and if your current one will continue to provide the best service for your audience. While you may be able to continue to use the same manufacturing company, for example, the transportation services you use may differ.
Payments, Funding, and Monetary Assets
How you finance your business matters. On the customer’s side, this means accepting payments the way that your market’s audience expects. You may need to open up a bank account in that new market or use other means to accept payments internationally without passing on unnecessary costs to your customers.
That’s just the start. One of the other considerations you need to make is how you can send assets where they’re needed. This means how you can reliably pay your suppliers or send funds to your other locations as necessary to keep your business afloat if one branch isn’t doing as well as another.
The good news is that there are many new options that make transferring money across borders more accessible. Crypto for business is a relatively new concept, but there are more secure options than ever before.
Different Attitudes
One of the reasons why large and successful businesses fail in new markets is because they think they can simply copy-paste their efforts onto a new market. This is wrong. This is why many big western brands have failed in eastern markets.
The best way to avoid this issue is simply to hire locally. When you create an international office, hire locals to help you translate your business’s values and model for the new audience. At a minimum, you need to do this for your marketing team, but in reality, having specialists in that country who understand what it takes to succeed in their country in charge of key decision-making processes is essential.
Yes, you will need to work with them to come to a middle ground so that your brand looks and feels the same around the world. How you market that brand and even how you sell your products and services, however, will change depending on customers’ attitudes and expectations.
Signs It’s Time to Expand Your Business
There are three different signs that it’s time to expand:
Investment
If your business idea has received significant backing from an investor, usually, the goal is to expand either nationally or internationally. Your local community can be great for when you first start out, but real notoriety and profits come from expanding beyond your comfort zone. This is particularly true of those expanding to new markets.
Popularity
Small brands become popular all the time, and when that happens, it’s smart to capitalize on that popularity and start to expand. Initially, this will be within the same city or state. You’ll already have the notoriety you need to bring in an influx of customers and won’t need to do as much in terms of marketing to get yourself out there. Only once you’ve started to see more remote interest (which you can keep track of via online orders or looking through the demographics from analytics tools) will you want to expand to a new city, state, or even country.
Demand
The last reason to expand is that your current operations cannot keep up with demand. You will want to be careful with this, however, as a trend or fad could result in a huge increase in demand but only for a short while. When you’re thinking of responding due to high demand, always understand the why behind it. This will help you expand in an appropriate way.
Ultimately from a legal and ethics perspective, local laws should be considered every step of the way when expanding your business. Doing things correctly right from the start will help you succeed once you’ve officially launched your new branch. There are big differences between operating as a national business and an international business. Have experts by your side so that you have everything in order. This way, you can focus on what will help make your company thrive.