1. Add an expansion to your business or open up a new location
Before thinking about expanding, ensure your current location is running smoothly and growing steadily. If all of that is working, treat an expansion or new location like you’re opening another business, but make sure it’s the best thing for your business. Don’t focus so much on the profit. With that being said, one of the most important things you should consider is if you have the financing available to build out a new location. If you are looking to expand and need some cash to do it, let us know. We have a great program called Gravity Capital designed to help businesses get the funding they need without the hassle.
Get the Gravity newsletter for the latest FAQs, tools, tips and tricks
2. License your product for use outside your company
Licensing is a $5.4 billion a year industry that allows companies or brands to use your product and sell it themselves. For certain products, this can be a great opportunity to get a portion of the profits without doing a ton of the legwork.
3. Start accepting credit card and/or NFC payments like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay
Are you a cash/check only business? Expand your customer base by accepting credit cards. By accepting credit cards, you’ll open your business up to so many more revenue streams – online, gift cards, loyalty programs, etc. Also, it’s more convenient for your customers. At Gravity Payments we help businesses process credit card payments while a level of transparency and service that is often absent from the rest of the credit card processing industry. If this is something you would like to explore for your business let us know.
4. Meet and connect with influential people who can help grow your brand
Connect with the right people and show them the benefit of your product or service. As they communicate this out to their circle of influence, your brand will increase in awareness.
5. Diversify and deepen your product line
Let’s say you have the world’s greatest glove for weightlifters. You’re selling your gloves direct to consumers and it has become the number one product among the industry. Now that you have brand awareness, recognition, and trust, why not expand that into more options for your customer? That could include shirts, socks, gym shorts, and more. By deepening your product line, you become a brand people trust instead of a product they enjoy.
6. Expand your market reach
If you currently have a sales staff in Los Angeles that is performing well but looking to grow, why not expand and hire some sales staff in San Francisco or San Diego? Push your brand outside of your home base and reap the benefits. Though Gravity Payments is headquartered in Seattle, we have representatives and teams all over the country. This type of expansion has really proved fruitful for Gravity.
7. Apply for a “request for proposal”
Government RFPs or “request for proposals” are not for everyone like licensing or franchising, but for many companies it can be huge. Currently on the government’s Contract Opportunities website there are over 30,000 open opportunities for government bids.
8. Focus more of your time on promoting your business on social media
Photo Credit: howtostartablogonline.net
Recent studies show 52 percent of adults now use two or more social media sites and 2.1 billion people around the globe are on social media. By focusing more of your marketing on social media, you can share new products or services – for free! Social media is an easy way to connect directly and instantly with your customers and keep them updated on what your company is up to.
9. Attend conferences, events, or tradeshows
Having success at farmer’s markets and looking to showcase your product to more people? Take your business on the road and visit different events, conferences, or trade shows like South by Southwest, Natural Products Expo West, and more.
10. If all else fails, go back to the basics
Maybe you are trying to expand too much and now are spread too thin. Take a step back and think about why you started your business in the first place. Get back to the basics and focus on what made your business take off in the first place. As Kevin O’Leary on Shark Tank puts it, “Whatever you pay attention to, grows!”For a great example of when this happened to Starbucks, check out their Back to the Basics article in the New York Times
