How to Expand Your Business

It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Growing a business is a marathon and will have peaks and valleys. It’s not easy, and it’s not for everyone. There are going to be some hard times where you want to quit. You will not always be right or have the best idea. You will fail. You must be willing to work on the business and not always in the business. You must forge ahead, persevere, and know there is no education like adversity. And with all of that out of the way, I can say with 100% certainty that owning and building a business is one of the most rewarding experiences life can offer. It’s the American Dream!

When it comes to business development, you want to key in on a few fundamental guides that will help you in your entrepreneurial journey:

Bring in people who are smarter than you with diverse viewpoints
Write out your vision and values, and develop incremental, clear goals
Listen to professionals and surround yourself with a good accountant, attorney and banker
Take risks, learn from failure, be hungry, be humble, and know that you will not always be right or have the best idea
Be ready to change, continuously learn and adapt to factors outside of your control

Once you have this down, there are general practicalities to expanding business, and choosing what to work on is so incredibly important. You want to ask yourself a litany of questions with the goal of trying to kill an idea as soon as you can:

Are you solving a problem for a sizeable market?
Do you have deep knowledge of the industry?
How will it work, who will build it, what’s the competition, and where is the market headed?
How will it make money?
How much money will you need to get up and running or launch a minimally viable product?
How will you market it?
How long will it take before you know it’s a hit or miss?

If you go through this process and your idea stands up to scrutiny, you may just have a winner!

Good luck and let me know if you want to grab lunch as it’s always necessary to commiserate with fellow business owners, brainstorm and help each other out.