Some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs started out with a simple Mom and Pop operation. Thanks to hard work and smart decisions, their businesses grew into some of the most recognizable corporations in the world. If you're lucky enough to be running an enterprise that is getting bigger by the day, you may be looking for some ideas to accelerate that growth even further. Below are just a few.
Employ a Ghost Kitchen
A great way to expand your offerings and keep clients happy is to use a ghost kitchen. What is a ghost kitchen? It's an entity that provides food service on behalf of businesses that don't normally do so. For example, if you own a bar, hotel or sports and recreation club, you could use a Reef ghost kitchen to allow your patrons to order food for delivery. The ghost kitchen will contract with local restaurants to make their menus available to those ordering.
The great thing about the ghost kitchen concept is that it will save your business from the considerable costs that would come with adding a physical cafe to your site. By instead farming out all your food service, you won't incur higher rent or the overhead of wait staff and food preparer salaries. It's a win-win.
Add an E-Commerce Website
More and more brick-and-mortar merchants are looking beyond their geographic market by adding e-commerce services. Even before the pandemic, the market was growing exponentially--from $28 billion in 2000 to $861 billion in 2020. Whether you're selling products or even services, this is a great way to expand your reach. You'll need to choose the e-commerce platform that's best for your particular business and then focus your SEO and digital advertising efforts on targeted regions.
Acquire a Competitor
Is there a competitive business of similar size that does exactly what you do? If you could successfully buy that business, you would double yours overnight. The only way to know if there's an opportunity to do so is to ask. Like a potential prom date who's just waiting to be approached, they may be more interested than you thought.
Naturally, you'll want to make sure that the business is in solid financial condition. You'll also want to feel confident that the existing customer base will transfer their loyalty to you after the sale. That said, do your homework on every facet of the target competitor's operation.
Upgrade Your HR
Any expanding business will require more employees, so get ready. You'll need to have a strong human resources operation in place. Also, remember that few big businesses achieve consistent results without an equally strong performance management system. However, the traditional approach of assessing your employees via annual reviews is increasingly seen as outdated and ineffective. In fact, Accenture found that 90 percent of human resource officers say the process doesn’t even yield accurate information. It's something to bear in mind as you move forward.
These are just some of the ideas a company can entertain when considering a growth strategy. No matter how you plan on expanding your footprint, be thorough in your research.