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Entrepreneurs – Grow Your Small Business into a Large Business

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Article Overview: So you have a small business just making a profit, but you really want a bigger and more profitable business. How do you make the jump from small to large?

Entrepreneurs – Grow Your Small Business into a Large Business

Business Plan and Strategy

1. Revisit your business plan and update it to reflect recent changes.
2. Start thinking bigger – look at what you want to become in say three years and then work backwards to see what you have to do to meet these targets.
3. Add these to goals, activities etc to your business plan.

Finances

4. Fine tune your turnover to ensure that it is running at its maximum capability.
5. Ensure that you are financially stable and able to borrow enough to fund your expansion.

Operational Structure

6. Review your operational efficiency until it is at its optimum.
7. Review what you need to improve, change or increase in order to cope with an extra output.
8. Review your stock levels and ensure that they are at an optimum level.
9. Review your office, store, production line and stock room – will they be big enough to cope with your planned expansion?

Product Range

10. Look for any other niches you can sell in.
11. Ensure that you have a full product range that meets your market requirements.
12. Look at improving key sellers in your product range.
13. Ensure you have up sells available to increase your total sales figures.
14. Introduce additional products that will improve your appeal to your market.

Staff

15. Ensure that your staff are trained, motivated and informed.
16. Identify key staff that you wish develop as your business grows.
17. Develop a communications plan so that all your involved staff are aware of and involved in your business changes.
18. Be prepared to bring in professional help, consultancy and protection to help with your expansion.

Lastly and most importantly, ensure that your expansion is planned and controlled. Many a large company has become a much smaller company because they expanded far too quickly. If you don’t believe me then look up what happened to Sock Shop, Body Shop and Marks and Spencer’s, to name a few that lost money when they expanded too rapidly.

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Article Tags: additional products, body shop, business changes, business plan, consultancy, expansion product, fine tune, marks and spencer, maximum capability, money, niches, operational efficiency, operational structure, optimum level, smaller company, stock levels, stock room, targets, turnover



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