{"source_url": "https://www.forbes.com", "url": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2020/12/31/business-expansion-strategies-to-consider/", "title": "Growing When Times Are Good: 5 Business Expansion Strategies", "top_image": "https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/600x315/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F5de52755755ebf0006fbf0cb%2F960x0.jpg%3FcropX1%3D0%26cropX2%3D1000%26cropY1%3D50%26cropY2%3D612", "meta_img": "https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/600x315/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F5de52755755ebf0006fbf0cb%2F960x0.jpg%3FcropX1%3D0%26cropX2%3D1000%26cropY1%3D50%26cropY2%3D612", "images": ["https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/144x144/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fassets%2Fimages%2Favatars%2Fblog-2667_400_b3ecba59c04fdd41a55e2685464a1328.jpg", "https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5de52755755ebf0006fbf0cb/960x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=1000&cropY1=50&cropY2=612", "https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/600x315/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F5de52755755ebf0006fbf0cb%2F960x0.jpg%3FcropX1%3D0%26cropX2%3D1000%26cropY1%3D50%26cropY2%3D612", "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b93957236f100a5054f2fa724b74fe80?s=136&d=mm&r=g"], "movies": [], "text": "With the stock market setting new highs, you don\u2019t need to be an economist to see that companies of all sizes are doing quite well right now. Combine this with excellent consumer confidence levels and extraordinarily low unemployment numbers, and it makes for a lot of companies with cash on their hands.\n\nIt should be a great season for bonuses, but these strong cash positions also create an opportunity for growth. In fact, if you fail to leverage these good times to grow your business, you\u2019ll be in a much weaker position when the next inevitable downturn hits the economy.\n\nToday\u2019s strong economy creates an excellent opportunity to grow your business. \u00a9 suphakit73- Adobe Stock\n\nCreate successful growth through diversification\n\nWith the knowledge that a downturn will eventually hit, let\u2019s look at diversification as an overall guiding principle when we consider growth strategies. When you diversify, it\u2019s not only growing your business, it\u2019s taking out an insurance policy that protects you for when business slows.\n\nDiversification is important for your personal investment portfolio; it\u2019s important for your business for similar reasons. Here are some ways you can bring diversity to your business model:\n\nAdd new products and services to your catalog\n\nTarget different customer groups\n\nBuy related companies\n\nEstablish your business in new geographic areas\n\nExpand overseas\n\nExpand your offerings\n\nI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve asked yourself the question \u201cWhat else can I sell to my customers?\u201d If you\u2019ve had ideas along these lines, but haven\u2019t yet followed through on them, there probably won\u2019t be a better time than now, so take action.\n\nAlso, consider these strategies:\n\nCreate product or service levels, then as time goes on, add attractive features to the higher-priced levels, encouraging customers to upgrade.\n\nBundle your products and services. Have you ever watched the TV show American Pickers? When they want to make a purchase from a reluctant seller, they \u201cbundle\u201d a few items together. Bundling items makes deals more attractive to both buyer and seller.\n\nTarget untapped consumers\n\nIt\u2019s a fact of life that, over the last decade or two, the United States has become much more of a salad bowl than a melting pot, and you can analyze this from a variety of angles. We have a wide range of language and ethnic groups that tend to maintain their identities, and we also have the East and West Coasts versus the \u201cflyover\u201d states. I might also mention that we have an extreme diversity in age cohorts, like the baby boomers, millennials, Gen-Xers, Generation Z, and more to come!\n\nWho are your current typical customers? How can your product or service be tweaked to make inroads into other groups of consumers? Let\u2019s take Spanish-speaking consumers as an example. If you watch any of the sports channels, you\u2019ll notice that even on the English-language broadcasts they promote their Spanish-language channels. They know that although Spanish-speaking sports fans are watching their English broadcasts, if they can move them to their Spanish channel, they will create a more loyal and avid viewer.\n\nOther Articles From AllBusiness.com:\n\nGrow through acquisitions\n\nThere are two basic ways to go here: acquire competitors or acquire suppliers. A third strategy might be to acquire companies that are somewhat related to your industry or share a customer base.\n\nA good thing about acquiring one or more of your suppliers (vertical integration) is that your competitors probably use the same suppliers. If your competitors continue to buy from the companies you acquire, you\u2019re getting a bit of their sales. If your competitors move to different suppliers, you\u2019ve made life a little more difficult for them.\n\nExpand domestically\n\nRemember the Great Recession? It would have been far worse had it not been for Texas, which continued to grow through much of the Great Recession while every other state was still struggling.\n\nThere are major population migration streams between states right now, which strongly impacts certain urban areas through loss of residents and a boom in residents. With apologies to the cities that made the shrinking list, these demographics represent bandwagons to jump on and sinking ships to abandon, at least when you\u2019re devising plans to grow your business.\n\nExpand overseas\n\nWith the advent of the internet and convenient international shipping, expanding into foreign markets is easier now than it has ever been. A musician friend of mine was telling me recently how he bought a piece of gear from a seller in Australia, and how a friend of his who owns a music store has done a great job selling to overseas buyers.\n\nThe benefits are many: Not only can you realize new revenue, you can connect to new talent, discover foreign investment opportunities, boost your reputation, and more.\n\nAt some point, you\u2019ll need to deal with various currencies, and fortunately there\u2019s been an explosion in online Forex broker sites. That\u2019s good, but it can also be confusing. It\u2019s smart to start your Forex broker search at an overview site where you can customize filters like the one found on FX-List.com; you\u2019ll save yourself some time.\n\nThere\u2019s also a lot of information available from the government to help you get started selling overseas. Check out the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council and Export.gov. Sometimes the best initial strategy is to partner with an existing foreign company or find a distributor so you can more easily get your foot in the door.\n\nWe started this by noting the positive business climate that we\u2019re currently enjoying. If you work hard now to expand, there\u2019s a good chance you can continue to ride this wave for quite some time.\n\nRELATED: 5 Choices That Can Make a Business More Successful\n\nThis article was originally published on AllBusiness. See all articles by Megan Totka.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": ["business expansion"], "tags": [], "authors": ["Megan Totka"], "publish_date": "Thu Dec 31 00:00:00 2020", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "Today\u2019s strong economy creates an excellent opportunity to grow your business.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width,initial-scale=1,minimum-scale=1,maximum-scale=2,user-scalable=yes", "apple-itunes-app": "app-id=588647136", "fb": {"app_id": 123694841080850}, "og": {"site_name": "Forbes", "title": "Growing When Times Are Good: 5 Business Expansion Strategies", "image": "https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/600x315/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F5de52755755ebf0006fbf0cb%2F960x0.jpg%3FcropX1%3D0%26cropX2%3D1000%26cropY1%3D50%26cropY2%3D612", "updated_time": "2019-12-30T15:17:18-05:00", "url": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2020/12/31/business-expansion-strategies-to-consider/", "description": "Today\u2019s strong economy creates an excellent opportunity to grow your business.", "type": "article"}, "twitter": {"site": "@forbes", "card": "summary_large_image", "title": "Growing When Times Are Good: 5 Business Expansion Strategies", "description": "Today\u2019s strong economy creates an excellent opportunity to grow your business.", "image": "https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/600x300/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F5de52755755ebf0006fbf0cb%2F960x0.jpg%3FcropX1%3D0%26cropX2%3D1000%26cropY1%3D50%26cropY2%3D612", "creator": "@allbusiness"}, "description": "Today\u2019s strong economy creates an excellent opportunity to grow your business.", "keywords": "business expansion", "author": "Megan Totka", "news_keywords": "business expansion", "article": {"publisher": "https://www.facebook.com/forbes", "author": "Megan Totka", "section": "Small Business", "section_url": "https://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/", "id": "blogAndPostId/blog/post/2667-5de51bc40647360006354e55", "published": "2019-12-31", "modified": "2019-12-30"}}, "canonical_link": "https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2020/12/31/business-expansion-strategies-to-consider/"}