In all honesty, on your very first day of business, you’re immediately expanding. Customers come in the door, buy merchandise–or whatever it is you’re selling–and you already have to do inventory, ordering more product, filling up more on your floor. What happens when you have to do a major-scale expansion? Such as up-sizing the building, hiring more employees, maybe opening up another building in another area of where you live. Better yet, when do you know it’s the right time to expand on that scale?
It’s simple, really. If you’re doing well in your business, your customer base is strong, but you find that you’re not getting your work done in a timely manner, leaving many of your customers empty-handed and going to competitors, you might see that expansion is necessary. Hire a few more people with the correct job descriptions to take the burden off your hands. Guess what, your business just got bigger. Moreover, another business “trigger” leading to inevitable expansion: your employees then can’t get the work done in a timely manner! Further expansion might include more space, maybe more technological advancements that will cost heftier investments, maybe even another building–a chapter, or sector, sister company, whatever you want to call it–in another part of town. Methods of transportation are an important part of expansion, too–getting a company vehicle, or setting up a partnership with a trucking company. There are even some factors not based off of natural business success, such as drastic, random changes in your industry; it might force you to expand in areas you normally wouldn’t, such as in the fast food industry, starting with, for example, McDonald’s introduction of their coffee products. Moreover, over-the-counter medications go through radical changes that force pharmacies to revamp their business to better match the quality necessary to retain customers.
Consider all these factors carefully. Because expansion is a big deal, and a costly one. However, if you choose it well, in the long-run it’ll benefit your company well.