 Welcome to The Journey. Is it time to expand your business? If so, here's how. Fending your business can be a really exciting time for you as an entrepreneur, but it doesn't just stop there. It can also be exciting for everyone else involved. I mean, think about it. You got more money coming in, so you can hire more staff. You can do some upgrades within your business, and it's even great for our country. Yeah, not only does it benefit your employees, but it benefits our economy. I mean, small businesses are the backbone of the great US of A. So it's great for everyone all around, but it's important to not get ahead of yourself and go into it with some planning and preparation. So are you ready to take your business to the next level? If so, first answer these four questions. Question number one, have you conducted enough market research and established a timeline? Well, let's say I'm a business owner. I gotta say, Alex, I don't know. I don't think I need market research, or I need to go and do the research. If I'm getting so much business, so much I can't even keep up. I can't even handle it. Like that to me is, duh, I expand. So glad business is booming, but unfortunately you do need a better reason than just being busy for expanding right now. All right. So what you're saying is even if I do have a booming customer base or high priced products and services, it doesn't necessarily mean I need to like go and start opening up storefronts all over America. I guess what you're saying is I need to start conducting research. Absolutely. Got it. So some things to consider when you're doing that market research is your customer's demographics or their location. So if you have a lot of customers that are seeking you out in a certain area or city, maybe that's where you need to open up your location. That reminds me when I was a barista in Long Beach, California, and we would have customers come from all over outside of Long Beach. And I gave the owner that feedback like, look, some of our customers drive really far. I bet you can succeed if you open up a location closer to Seal Beach. Sure enough they did. And sure enough, it succeeded. Look at you doing some market research. I know back in the day. So the second question you can ask yourself is do I have a best selling product or service that maybe I could add on to or diversify? And if so, there are two strategies on how you want to do this. Yeah, you got to switch it up a little bit. So one, you can either add new products or services or two, you can kind of diversify some of your products that already exist. They may not be doing as well as some of your other popular items and make those a lot more popular. So let's say you take on one of these strategies or both allow you to increase the revenue streams and your customer needs. But keep in mind, Emma, don't get crazy. Now adding new products or changing something out, that's going to take some time. So definitely account for that in your timeline when you're thinking of your expansion plans. Now the third question you need to ask yourself, be honest, can you actually afford to expand? Because it's really critical that before you go into doing this that you are actually financially prepared. Yeah, think back to whenever you first started your business and how much money you put into that. So if you don't have the funds, you may need some extra capital. So a good thing to do though is look into actually, how much money do you need when you're talking finances and also how much can you afford to pay back? And that's really important because you do want to make sure you set yourself up to be a good candidate for loans for one. Remember, all eyes are going to be on your credit. So make sure you're on your best behavior. You're making those timely payments and you're really on top of your game. The last question to ask yourself is, can I establish some mutual partnerships with other like-minded businesses? Yeah, and that's a great idea. Partnerships can truly help you to expand, you get in front of a new audience, spread more word of mouth about your business. I know a great example. Sorry, pizza's always on my brain. Let's say you have a pizza restaurant and next door, there's an ice cream shop. I mean, what's great after a pizza dessert? Exactly. So you at your pizza shop, you do like, hey, if you buy two sizes of pizza or two full pizzas, you get 10% off your ice cream next door. And then obviously the ice cream joint, you know, they're going to do something back as well to drive traffic over to the pizza joint. Great news. You're ready to expand. Now what? Communication. I always talk about the importance of communication. So you got to let your team know. You got to get it out there on sites, social media. So everyone's on board with your expansion. Exactly. So not only letting all of your employees know, kind of updating them on the situation, but also letting your customers know. They're going to be so excited. Exactly. So like you mentioned, spread it out on your social media platforms. You can send out an email newsletter, anything to let your loyal customers know about your expansion plans. And that way, when you do open your doors in this new city, new location, you're not just waiting for customers to show up. They know about your grand opening. Last but not least, make sure all of your information online is completely updated with like correct hours, locations, all of that. The nitty gritty details, make sure they're correct. Yeah, and that's Facebook, your Twitter, your website, your Google, and don't forget Yelp. So if you're ready to take that leap and expand your business, now you know how to get started. Be sure to like this video and comment down below. Oh, and be sure to subscribe to our videos and ring that bell so you're the first to know when the next one comes out. This is The Journey.