Not all small businesses stay small businesses. In fact, some of the largest businesses in the world started very tiny. Steve Jobs, for example, started Apple by selling computers he assembled in his own garage. McDonald’s, Walmart and many others started as a single location. However, growing into a massive multinational corporation isn’t exactly easy. With that in mind, below are five ways to help your business advance up the corporate ranks.
Move into E-Commerce
One thing you should take notice of about today’s business climate is the fact that today a good portion of commerce now occurs entirely online. According to projections, online retail sales will expand to more than $4 trillion by 2020. Selling your products online is one obvious way to greatly expand your customer base.
Further Your Education
While there are some rags to riches stories regarding individuals that did not attend college and went on to finding multimillion dollar companies, these are certainly the exception to the norm. Having a good working knowledge of things like business administration, management and finance are very important to succeed in today’s tough business environment. Consider furthering your education by obtaining an online masters in organizational leadership or a similar degree.
Expand to New Locations
If you want to grow your business physically, you need to start the process at some point. There is a cap on how much success you can have with a single location. While some business owners may be satisfied with that level of success, they’ll never grow into a nationwide chain. Perform research to determine what kind of expansion is feasible for your business.
Rethink Your Marketing
Another way to expand your company is to expand your appeal to more consumers. Rethink your assumptions about your customer base and perform some in-depth market research. You may find that you’ve been overlooking certain lucrative demographics entirely.
Expand Your Finances and Profit Potential
Overall, if you want to expand significantly, you need two things, profit, and investment. Investment is often required to greatly expand your profit potential. Construct long-term plans on how to use any future cash infusions into your company in a way that will allow investors to make a strong ROI and your company to grow at a rate you are satisfied with.
Growing a company from a small business into a much larger corporate entity isn’t exactly easy. Many companies end up failing in that pursuit. However, with the right combination of hard work, money, knowledge, and passion, making that dream into a reality is possible.
