1. Open another location.
2. Offer your business as a franchise or business opportunity.
3. License your products.
4. Form an alliance.
5. Diversify.
6. Target other markets.
7. Win a government contract.
8. Merge with or acquire another business.
9. Expand globally.
10. Expand to the Internet.

1. Open another location. This might not be your best choice for business expansion, but it's listed first here because that's what often comes to mind first for so many entrepreneurs considering expansion. "Physical expansion isn't always the best growth answer without careful research, planning and number-planning," says small-business speaker, writer and consultant Frances McGuckin , who offers the following tips for anyone considering another location:

Make sure you're maintaining a consistent bottom-line profit and that you've shown steady growth over the past few years.
Look at the trends, both economic and consumer, for indications on your company's staying power.
Make sure your administrative systems and management team are extraordinary-you'll need them to get a new location up and running.
Prepare a complete business plan for a new location.
Determine where and how you'll obtain financing. (See " Got Cash? " for financing tips.)
Choose your location based on what's best for your business, not your wallet.


2. Offer your business as a franchise or business opportunity. Bette Fetter, founder and owner of Young Rembrandts , an Elgin, Illinois-based drawing program for children, waited 10 years to begin franchising her concept in 2001-but for Fetter and her husband, Bill, the timing was perfect. Raising four young children and keeping the business local was enough for the couple until their children grew older and they decided it was time to expand nationally.


3. License your product. This can be an effective, low-cost growth medium, particularly if you have a service product or branded product, notes Larry Bennett, director of the Larry Friedman International Center for Entrepreneurship at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. "You can receive upfront monies and royalties from the continued sales or use of your software, name brand, etc.-if it's successful," he says. Licensing also minimizes your risk and is low cost in comparison to the price of starting your own company to produce and sell your brand or product.

To find a licensing partner, start by researching companies that provide products or services similar to yours. "[But] before you set up a meeting or contact any company, find a competent attorney who specializes in intellectual property rights," advises Bennett. "This is the best way to minimize the risk of losing control of your service or product."

4. Form an alliance. Aligning yourself with a similar type of business can be a powerful way to expand quickly. Last spring, Jim Labadie purchased a CD seminar set from a fellow fitness professional, Ryan Lee, on how to make and sell fitness information products. It was a move that proved lucrative for Labadie, who at the time was running an upscale personal training firm he'd founded in 2001. "What I learned on [Lee's] CDs allowed me to develop my products and form alliances within the industry," says Labadie, who now teaches business skills to fitness professionals via a series of products he created and sells on his Web site, HowToGetMoreClients.com .

Seeing that Labadie had created some well-received products of his own, Lee agreed to promote Labadie's product to his long contact list of personal trainers. "That resulted in a decent amount of sales," says Labadie-in fact, he's increased sales 500 percent since he created and started selling the products in 2001. "Plus, there have been other similar alliances I've formed with other trainers and Web sites that sell my products for a commission."

If the thought of shelling out commissions or any of your own money for the sake of an alliance makes you uncomfortable, Labadie advises looking at the big picture: "If you want to keep all the money to yourself, you're really shooting yourself in the foot," says the Tampa, Florida, entrepreneur. "You need to align with other businesses that already have lists of prospective customers. It's the fastest way to success."


5. Diversify. Small-business consultant McGuckin offers several ideas for diversifying your product or service line:

Sell complementary products or services
Teach adult education or other types of classes
Import or export yours or others' products
Become a paid speaker or columnist
"Diversifying is an excellent growth strategy, as it allows you to have multiple streams of income that can often fill seasonal voids and, of course, increase sales and profit margins," says McGuckin, who diversified from an accounting, tax and consulting business to speaking, writing and publishing.


6. Target other markets. Your current market is serving you well. Are there others? You bet. "My other markets are what make money for me," says McGuckin. Electronic and foreign rights, entrepreneurship programs, speaking events and software offerings produce multiple revenue streams for McGuckin, from multiple markets.

"If your consumer market ranges from teenagers to college students, think about where these people spend most of their time," says McGuckin. "Could you introduce your business to schools, clubs or colleges? You could offer discounts to special-interest clubs or donate part of [your profits] to schools and associations."

Baby boomers, elderly folks, teens, tweens...let your imagination take you where you need to be. Then take your product to the markets that need it.

7. Win a government contract. "The best way for a small business to grow is to have the federal government as a customer," wrote Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, ranking Democratic member of the House Small Business Committee, in August 2003. (Click here to read that article.) "The U.S. government is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world, with total procurement dollars reaching approximately $235 billion in 2002 alone."



8. Merge with or acquire another business. In 1996, when Mark Fasciano founded FatWire , a Mineola, New York, content management software company, he certainly couldn't have predicted what would happen a few years later. Just as FatWire was gaining market momentum, the tech downturn hit hard. "We were unable to generate the growth needed to maximize the strategic partnerships we'd established with key industry players," Fasciano says. "During this tech 'winter,' we concentrated on survival and servicing our clients, while searching for an opportunity to jump-start the company's growth. That growth opportunity came last year at the expense of one of our competitors."



9. Expand globally. Not only did FatWire grow in terms of customers and sales, it also experienced global growth simply as a result of integrating the best of the divine and FatWire technologies. "FatWire finally has international reach-we've established new offices in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, China, Japan and Singapore," says Fasciano. This increased market share is what will allow FatWire to realize sustained growth.

But you don't need to acquire another business to expand globally. You just need to prime your offering for an international market the way FatWire was primed following the integration of its technologies with divine's.

You'll also need a foreign distributor who'll carry an inventory of your product and resell it in their domestic markets. You can locate foreign distributors by scouring your city or state for a foreign company with a U.S. representative. Trade groups, foreign chambers of commerce in the United States, and branches of American chambers of commerce in foreign countries are also good places to find distributors you can work with.

10. Expand to the Internet. "Bill Gates said that by the end of 2002, there will be only two kinds of businesses: those with an Internet presence, and those with no business at all," notes Sally Falkow a Pasadena, California, Web content strategist. "Perhaps this is overstating the case, but an effective Web site is becoming an integral part of business today."

Landing your Web site in search engine results is key-more than 80 percent of traffic comes via search engines, according to Falkow. "As there are now more than 4 billion Web pages and traffic on the Internet doubles every 100 days, making your Web site visible is vital," she says. "You need every weapon you can get."

Design and programming are also important, but it's your content that will draw a visitor into your site and get them to stay. Says Falkow, "Putting together a content strategy based on user behavior, measuring and tracking visitor click streams, and writing the content based on researched keywords will get you excellent search results and meet the needs of your visitors."

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/70660

no 1 needs you have money
no 2 and 3 no so sure what it means
4. hmmm
5. still money is needed
6.
7.o i wish someone can teach me how to do that we could do serious business
8 and 9 needs you to borrow money from world bank i guess
10. get a website and promote ,bulk sms marketing,internet advertisement e.t.c

Thanks for tip

online business conference here

People just go and copy basic ideas off the internet.


This is business management 101 on how to expand your business.

Most of the tips are not for Nigerians.
wants to learn the Nigerian way? consult me

NEVER!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!!! SELL ON CREDIT!!!!!! Especially to friends and family!

Cool! If You Want To Buy A Property In Portharcourt, Check here:https://www.nairaland.com/bunchyproject/topics

[img]http://learnweek.com/?r=agbeniga[/img] I love this

@ Op, that's a good job another added advantage for us into private business!

if u are in Nigeria this is ur list:
1. make sure u have a solid connection in govt.
2. make sure ur business is either politics, oil bunkering, kidnappin or church.
3. get a strong spiritualist to see visions for u.
4. i am comin for more

is dis realy working

Coldfeet: NEVER!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!!! SELL ON CREDIT!!!!!! Especially to friends and family!

because our refusal may offend you

a1solution: Most of the tips are not for Nigerians.
wants to learn the Nigerian way? consult me

but no consultation fee o

Do u all knw dat d man who wrote dis articule is still a poor man.?

bros12345: if u are in Nigeria this is ur list:
1. make sure u have a solid connection in govt.
2. make sure ur business is either politics, oil bunkering, kidnappin or church.
3. get a strong spiritualist to see visions for u.
4. i am comin for more

make i help u....
use jùjù to attract customers.
Apply sexy ladies as sales girls

all dis na crap 4 9ja.
u want 2 grow ur biz? go meet one baba wey go giv u small 'amuchacha'. and ur biz will boom wella.
u suprise? una no dey watch yoruba films?
....only joking o.
gud stuff doh.

bros12345: if u are in Nigeria this is ur list:
1. make sure u have a solid connection in govt.
2. make sure ur business is either politics, oil bunkering, kidnappin or church.
3. get a strong spiritualist to see visions for u.
4. i am comin for more

hahahahahaha.....
u don kolo finish

afm4ever: oleburuku oleburuku

Pls, name your ideas and be more explicit. If you need followership, pls open up at least a bit. Or is it gambling?

afm4ever: but no consultation fee o

its free but at at my leisure time

ok am back

4. be smart. dont pay ur colleagues, staff, or partners. divert the funds.
5. open a swiss bank account. of course u know wat to do wt d acct.
6. change location.
7. wen u come back. u are already successfl. hire some area boys.
8. visit baba iyabo.
9. declare ur interest to contest election.
10. if u win sucess continues. if u lose run back to where u came from.

tht is how to succeed in nigeria. follow it step by step

@ bigfat.

You are trying hard in this forum on educating people on issue of business, though many folks here are not taking it seriously based on their comments and response.

Pls, the golden rule of business is to take action, no matter how small that action is, until one does that he or she may not understand what this poster has beeing posting on this forum.

take business actions and you will reap the benefit.

What this poster is saying is true and it is applicable anywhere in any business, forget much about money and embrace business knowlegde. Then you will know how to make money without money, and then use the money to start any business of your choice.

@Bigfat, more grease to your palm

Pls dis is unrealistic in Nigeria,especially whn going into small scale bussiness.
We shd be objective in issues like dis.

my idols: Pls dis is unrealistic in Nigeria,especially whn going into small scale bussiness.
We shd be objective in issues like dis.

I beg to disgree with you, they are realistic in Nigeria, every business environment poses its own challenges, Nigeria not being an exception

my idols: Pls dis is unrealistic in Nigeria,especially whn going into small scale bussiness.
We shd be objective in issues like dis.

Don't talk ignorantly, Read this article to get enlightened.

Nice article here. Every entrepreneur has to think big and start small. Business is all about solving problems and filling needs, there are so many problems, especially in Africa. We the upcoming entrepreneurs must make sure Africa does not remain the same before we depart this earth. Keep thinking BIG!

11. Offer Partnership; sell out but make sure you have the highest %... Spread the stress... reap the higher %

jidegirl12: 11. Offer Partnership; sell out but make sure you have the highest %... Spread the stress... reap the higher %

.

See #4 of d article above