Considerations for Scaling Your Business Across Multiple Locations
Scaling your business can be a great way to increase your revenue growth without excessive investment. Scalability refers to the capacity to expand a company and increase revenue without dedicating unnecessary time and resources or disrupting day-to-day operations. Implementing a strategy to expand across locations allows you to boost profits and recognition.
More and more businesses are scaling into new markets and cities but there are a few aspects to consider before you decide if it's right for your business. What would you gain from this strategy? And what do you need to achieve it? Let’s take a closer look.
What are the benefits of opening offices in new locations?
Opening an office in a new location is exciting, and scary. Intimidating as it may seem, expanding to a new place can provide significant benefits to your business.
1. Generating new jobs
Research by Statista reports that there are over 200 million individuals unemployed as of 2021. Business scalability is a viable way of reducing this unemployment rate. Scale-ups are recognized as the “engines of job creation”. Expanding your business creates opportunities for locals while increasing your company’s value.
2. Increased revenue streams
Increasing the geographical scope of your business can also increase your profit margin. Scaling to multiple locations takes you a step ahead of the competition and exposes your business to new customers. More customers mean greater demand for your product or services, which translates into an increased cash influx.
3. Inspiration to innovate
As Peter Druker put it, today’s business follows the principle “innovate or die.” The times are evolving, and innovation is becoming essential. Scaling to a new location means businesses encounter new ways to enhance efficiency and streamline all processes. This brings innovative ideas for the operation.
A new location and work environment, combined with fresh additions to the team, can give rise to new ideas and approaches for responding to ever-growing customer demands. Innovation and generating new ideas can give you a competitive edge and help you stay afloat in the dynamic market.
4. Access to new talent
Setting up a business in a new location gives you access to a different culture of talent, which can be what you need to push your company ahead. According to current research by McKinsey, new perspectives are vital to the growth of a business. New hires tend to provide new perspectives and insight to address problems and provide solutions.
Also, a hire from another country provides a business with fresh possibilities to penetrate the potential market. More businesses today are embracing diversity and inclusion in their company culture.
What do you need to scale across multiple locations?
Scaling your business to a new location involves some pitfalls. Knowing what expanding your business requires to scale can help you prepare for the transition and prevent potential drawbacks. Let’s go through the basic prerequisites to take into account when planning to open a new business location.
1. The right technology
Expanding your business places heavier importance on ensuring effective communication and workforce management. Implementing technology like a workplace sign in system can benefit all aspects of your multi-site operation.
It can make your employee and visitor experience more efficient by enabling you to track visitors and staff where necessary, synchronize data, and gain better visibility across your multiple locations.
Workplace sign in software also supports the management of hybrid work environments and desk sharing.
2. Market knowledge
The importance of in-depth market knowledge of your new location can't be overemphasized. Whether you are running an onsite, remote, or hybrid workplace, managers need to understand the nuances of the local language, customer requirements and preferences, cultural differences, and regulations.
Additionally, market knowledge enables you to measure how many resources to invest for optimal results. Understanding the target market also helps you identify peculiar challenges, tackle them early, and turn them into a competitive advantage.
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3. A reason to expand
Understanding exactly why you want to scale to other locations is essential. What factors motivate your decision? Are you striving to launch in other markets and unlock your profit potential? Are you pressed by the competition in your primary location? Does the new location offer a better and more cost-effective talent selection?
When your current business setup limits profit potential, scaling to new areas allows you to diversify your assets and stabilize revenue. It also helps you increase your customer base and revenue. By expanding your scope, you can diversify and explore new ground, giving you an edge on your competition.
4. Resources
Scaling your business requires financial resources, time, and expertise.
- Invest in streamlining and automating processes: Leveraging a workplace management solution helps to eliminate bottlenecks, inefficient labor, and time-consuming processes.
- Build a high-performing, goal-oriented team: Identify the right moment to hire or opt for outsourcing, and let your core team focus on scaling your business.
- Plan and focus: Scaling up your business requires concentrating your efforts on your immediate goals, marketing strategies, and growth without jumping into opportunities that are not related to your business.
As a business owner, you know that growth is essential to your company’s success. Scaling up to new locations offers multiple benefits including an increased customer base and new income streams but there are a lot of things to consider, such as the best way to grow and the right technology to improve workplace management, across multiple locations.