Expanding Your Business Now that you have your business running after strategic consulting, it's now time to think on your next move. One route that you can take is expansion. However, expanding your business is not quite as easy as simply opening a new branch on the next street. In order to ensure that your business expansion will go the way you want it, you need to plan out the project well. You need to focus your attention on several key points. These are the ones that are very important in deciding how you do your expansion plans and maintain it. Note that, while the examples provided below are for stores (the simplest ones to use), the concepts apply to all types of businesses. First thing that you need to think about is what type of expansion you are going to undertake. There are two types of expansion that you can do. One is product line expansion, while the other is putting up additional branches. Both are aim to expand your market to reach more people, but these take different approaches and thus, have different considerations. In the case of product line expansion, you attract more customer attention by having more items that they can choose from. Choosing which products to include in your item list is crucial on whether the buying public goes for it or not. One approach that you can take is to simply expand your current product lines by adding more brands of the same items. This increases the choices available for your customers. Also, you can attract the more brand conscious ones, since they know that they can find the particular ones they are looking for. Another, rather riskier, method of increasing your product line is by adding new items into your list. What this means is that you introduce new items that you do not currently sell. For example, if your main thrust is hardware items, you can then branch out to sell baby products. You can then attract customers who do not normally buy from you. However, unlike adding new brand, wherein you only need to worry about one product, you run the risk of wasting money on several item lines if customers don't buy it. Thus, you need to carefully consider if the new items would be in fact, viable or not. Adding new branches to your shop can also increase your market greatly. However, this is much more difficult than simply putting in new products. Consider adding a new branch as similar to starting from scratch all over again. Location is the main thing you need to worry about. The new spot should have enough traffic to ensure good customer flow. At this point, the experience that you acquired from running the first branch can be very helpful in starting and managing the new one. About the Author FutureAfrica is a group of business consultants that offer business improvement, transformation and organizational development services to small and medium sized businesses, corporate and local authorities. Source: http://www.articletrader.com