Expanding and growing your business is one of the top priorities for most entrepreneurs. But the reality is that many will flounder when it comes to scaling up because they simply don’t have the right plan in place. Before you can do anything, you must understand that there is a difference between the way a small business is run and the way a larger business functions.

While you might be able to work with friends right now and you can make do with a single small office, two of the major challenges you will face come down to how your business operates and who you work with. You cannot possibly expect your business to continue the way it is now if you want different outcomes later on.

Fast expansion is tough to pull off but when the momentum is there, you need to know how to answer the call. Making a strong development plan is only half the battle. You still need to do everything you can to manage the situation and make sure that you don’t let the expansion get the better of you or your business.

This is a time for making some tough choices.

Grow Your Core Business

To expand quickly, you need to make sure that your core business is strong enough to take the extra weight. This means ensuring that your systems are ready to scale up but it also means bringing your staff up to speed with your ambitions for the business. You should only start the expansion process when every department is ready to take on a new load.

Automation is a good way to increase your business activity without having to take on more staff to do basic work. In an ideal world, your staff should be focused on as much creative activity as possible, leaving things that can be automated to pre-programmed systems. So, even while you are waiting to employ new staff, you can begin to increase your productivity and grow your business.

Hiring new staff is an essential part of growing a business and there are a few key signs that you need to get on with it! When you can’t keep up with what you’re doing or you have to turn down work, you have already missed the indicators that you should have hired a little earlier. Knowing that you plan to grow, starting the search nice and early for candidates who can help to develop your business and complement your current staff is a good idea. That said, hire too early and you’ll be paying someone to wait for work. Timing is everything!

Expand Your Capabilities

Once your core business is stronger, you can start to expand into other areas. For example, if your business designs products, the next natural step might be to enquire about manufacturing companies for sale. Acquisition is a great way to expand your business without having to put in all the effort of setting up. You should already have a business model in place that you can gradually alter and adapt to fit better with your other business functions.

Expanding your capabilities might also mean hiring someone to open a new department within your core business. But before you go ahead and start looking, make sure that you know exactly what you have planned for this new department. When you build a new team, you need to be able to express what the goals are and what success looks like. This means that while you might have an idea of which areas you want to expand into, you need a clear action plan to make that expansion successful.

The last way to expand your business capabilities is actually the lowest risk. If you want to enter a new market or niche within your industry, you might like to test the waters first by outsourcing. You could outsource to another company or to a freelancer but either way, you will get a feel for how this area could benefit your business as a whole. This route can also help to inform how you create a new division of your company and you may find that the freelancer you hire is instrumental in training and managing new staff for you.

Set Ambitious Targets

Ambitious targets are the best way to push your business forward but you still need to have a clear plan of how to achieve them. Some entrepreneurs like Elon Musk are well known for setting extremely ambitious goals and then missing them but equally, his achievements remain incredibly high. With this in mind, you need to think about setting targets that you may not reach within an aggressive timescale but that will push you to do more and do better.

However, when you are setting your ambitious targets, you must be realistic. For a start, you need to understand what your staff are capable of doing within a particular time frame and while you might be willing to work all hours of the day – they certainly won’t be happy to do the same. When you are setting your targets, realism is essential and ultimately, the target will be more believable.

Of course, when you look at the targets you have set, you should then go back and revisit your plan for your core business and expansion. Every part of your business should be working towards the same set of goals. So, while you might want to set up another branch elsewhere, if this doesn’t help you to meet your goals, you might be better focusing your attention elsewhere.

Fast expansion is hugely exciting but it comes with a lot of risks. You need to be absolutely clear about what your business is for and how you are going to grow without moving so fast you can’t keep up. Even fast expansion must be carefully monitored and controlled. As you begin to put your plan into motion, remember that you must continue to analyze and critique each move. Don’t stop looking for small details to improve.