How can a business successfully implement a business expansion model?
The best business expansion model for a particular business will depend on a number of factors, such as the business's industry, its target market, and its financial resources.
A business expansion model is a plan for growing a business beyond its current size. There are many different types of business expansion models, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Some of the most common business expansion models include:
- Organic growth: This is the most common type of business expansion model. It involves growing the business by increasing sales and profits within the existing market.
- Geographic expansion: This involves expanding the business into new geographic markets, such as new countries or regions.
- Product development: This involves developing new products or services to offer to existing or new customers.
- Market development: This involves expanding the business into new markets by targeting new customer segments or by selling existing products or services to new customers.
- Acquisition: This involves buying another business.
- Franchise: This involves selling the right to operate a business under a certain brand name and operating system to another party.
Are you struggling to expand your business? It may not be due to poor product quality, weak marketing strategies, or inadequate manpower. The main reason could be that you are too involved in the day-to-day operations of your business. While you may be able to make a profit by doing everything yourself, you won't be able to expand.
So when choosing a business expansion model, it is important to consider the following factors:
- The business's goals and objectives
- The business's resources and capabilities
- The risks and challenges involved in each model
- The potential rewards of each model
Consider a street vendor who makes delicious food. They have a profitable business, but they can only sell a limited number of items each day. In contrast, an automotive company produces and sells 70,000 bikes daily, and they can continue to expand by adding new products and manufacturing units.
You may wonder if the owner of the automotive company personally builds each bike. The answer is no. They delegate the day-to-day operations to others, allowing them to focus on larger projects.
To expand your business, you need to step away from daily operations and focus on growth-oriented tasks. Remember, if you want to expand your business, you need to concentrate on growth and come out of the operations.
FRAMEWORK
When it comes to business success, it's important to focus your energy and efforts on what matters most. This means identifying your main goal activity, which is focused on achieving big business goals, as well as firefighting activity, which refers to the daily activities that keep your business running smoothly.
There are two approaches to consider:
1. Multiple Things for Maintenance: This approach involves managing your business in a way that maintains its current position. While this can help you stay afloat, it won't necessarily lead to growth.
2. Main Thing for Improvement: This approach involves focusing on new projects, growth opportunities, and other initiatives that can help your business expand.
To determine which approach is right for you, it's important to prioritize your goals and focus your time accordingly. Rather than getting bogged down in small tasks like saving on office supplies or tracking invoices, create a schedule that allows you to dedicate time to big initiatives that can help your business thrive.
To start, write a goal statement for the next month or three months, and identify the three goals that will give you the highest growth in your business. Create a weekly calendar that dedicates morning hours to your main things, or growth-oriented activities, and evening hours to multiple things, like maintaining existing processes and nurturing your current business. By prioritizing your efforts and focusing on what matters most, you can achieve the success you're striving for.
Why We Created a Framework and Divided Our Time
The reason for creating a framework and dividing our time is simple: small or multiple tasks can easily consume our attention and time. These operational activities can become like a whirlwind or cyclonic storm that traps us in a cycle of daily firefighting. We may find ourselves rushing to complete tasks, signing checks, meeting new people, and attending to customer demands. Without a clear goal statement and proper time management, our focus can become scattered among these multiple tasks.
To avoid this, we recommend dedicating time to the main tasks that will bring growth and expansion. You can prioritize urgent and emergency work from 2PM to 8PM each day, while delegating smaller tasks to your manpower. This will allow you to focus on important tasks and achieve your goals.
Engage An Assistant
As a personal assistant, PA earns a salary of $5000-10,000/month. Meanwhile, the Executive Assistant (EA) should possess skills in finance, business planning, strategy, MIS reports, and review sheets. A CA or CA drop-out of the final year can fill this role and earns a salary of Rs. 40,000-50,000/month. You can also opt to hire an MBA in finance for financial planning and analysis.
Both PA and EA can assist you in designing your business operations from 8 AM to 2 PM. They can help you with the following key aspects of your business: incentive models, salary structure, employee incentivisation, rewards and recognition, review structure, and reporting. Once you have determined these key aspects, sit down with your think tank or leadership team to achieve your goals.
For instance, most businesses have a think tank team, which is referred to as the CEO office. Each member of the CEO office is assigned one or two departments to handle all the jerks and shocks of each department. This way, the CEO can focus on the main things that help grow the business. If your business is small, focus on the main things and multiple things. When growth happens, engage your manpower and departmental heads on multiple things, and you can focus only on the main things.
For choosing and implementing a business expansion model:
- Do your research.
- Talk to other businesses that have used the same model.
- Get professional advice.
- Make sure you have the resources and capabilities to implement the model successfully.
- Monitor and evaluate your results.
Businesses can have several departments, including Technology, Finance, Strategic Alliance, Call Centre, Product Development, Video Team, Short-term Courses, Channel Sales, IBCs and HR/supporting departments. The founder has to enable their leadership team in all these departments. Conduct a meeting with all the departmental heads once a week. At the start of each month, discuss the plan for the complete month. Remember, anything that gets prioritized, gets achieved.
To achieve your goals, start by crafting a clear goal statement. Then, divide your work into two blocks: 8AM to 2PM and 2PM to 8PM. At the close of each day and week, evaluate your progress to ensure maximum effectiveness. By following this approach, you can focus on growth and expansion while building your business and breaking free from busyness. If you're interested in learning more about how to make this transition, consider enrolling in our PSC course, "Busyness to Business." This course offers various tools, strategies, and techniques to help you manage your time and expand your business.