How to expand your business

When planning for your business’s future, there are key factors to consider as you begin to expand. From breaking into new locations to updating your marketing plan, there are a variety of strategies you can use. Growing a business requires research and planning, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to business expansion.

Keep reading to learn about how you can take your business to the next level.

What you’ll learn:

• There are different ways you can expand your business, and the best strategy depends on your business’s unique needs.
• To expand your business, you might consider conducting market research, getting more funding or opening a new location.
• Other ways to grow your company include expanding your marketing efforts and investing in new tools to create efficiencies.
• Capital One offers a variety of business credit card options to help support your business growth.

While each business has unique goals and objectives, here are a few different strategies you can use to expand your business:

As you’re planning your growth strategy, researching the market and identifying trends can help you gain more insight into your target audiences. You can start by looking into the demographics of your ideal customer base to improve your understanding of new growth opportunities—and determine whether there are any limitations, too. You can reach out directly to consumers with different methods, such as:

• Surveys or questionnaires
• Interviews
• Focus groups

If you need more capital to grow your business, there are some different methods you can use, like:

• Taking out a business loan or an SBA loan
• Opening a business credit card
• Using crowdfunding
• Funding with venture capital from investors
• Selling an ownership stake in your company

If you operate your business from a physical location, you might consider expanding into other areas to increase your market reach. You’ll want to start by updating your marketing plan by understanding your target consumer in the new area and researching potential competitors. It’s also important to review your business’s finances to ensure you have enough capital to support a new location.

If you legally qualify as a small business, you may be able to take advantage of contracting opportunities by registering as a government contractor and becoming either a prime contractor or subcontractor. Prime subcontractors directly bid on contracts, whereas a subcontractor joins contractors as part of a team.

You may also be able to grow your business by combining with another business to create a new legal entity—referred to as a merger. Or you could purchase an existing business or franchise and absorb the company into your company—referred to as an acquisition. As you transfer ownership, it’s important to enlist the help of an attorney to ensure your existing business is safeguarded during the merger or acquisition process.

To expand your business, you might consider adding different products or services to increase sales to your existing customer base and to attract new customers. For example, creating an “add-on” option to a service you already offer can boost sales within your organization.

Review your marketing strategy to determine if there are ways you can broaden your efforts to attract and retain customers. Whether you choose traditional marketing strategies—like print or event marketing—or digital marketing channels—like affiliate or social media marketing—it’s important to ensure your efforts fit within your budget.

As you focus on expansion efforts, consider ways to create efficiencies to help support business growth by investing in new technologies. Here are just a few examples of different tools you can use to help expand your small business:

• Keep customer information in one place using a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
• Streamline bill-paying with a service like Accounts Payable with Capital One.
• Create efficiencies with an email marketing platform.
• Increase in-house productivity with collaboration tools. 
• Safeguard your business with internet security software.

Want to know more? Here’s additional information about business expansion.

There are a variety of ways you can expand your business, and the best strategy will depend on your business goals and resources. If you’re considering using a business credit card to support your business’s growth, you might look into partnering with Capital One. Browse Capital One’s business credit card offerings to find one that best meets your needs as a business owner.