How many of us have started an at-home business, only to stay at home and never make it anywhere? Don’t worry, it’s an incredibly common thing due to how difficult it is to actually break out of the mentality of an at-home startup. It takes a lot of dedication, a pinch of luck and a lot of hard work to succeed.
Looking for a place to expand to
The first thing you need to think about when growing your business is to choose a destination. For instance, if you’re currently working from home as an entrepreneur, then where do you see yourself in a year or two? Some would say still at home because it’s the most convenient place to work and hire employees remotely, but others would start to look for offices to rent. It all depends on your current working situation and how you plan to evolve as a company. Some people would like to hire employees to work for them and see their staff face-to-face. In this case, it’s best to rent an office and start a recruitment drive. However, if you want to save costs and can make do with just cloud computing, then you may want to look at working remotely.
Expanding on your ideas
There are two main paths to take when you grow your business. Firstly, you can diversify your business. This means to tackle more industries or audiences for the sake of growing your customer base. For instance, if you create a product targeted towards children, then you can diversify by targeting teenagers or adults as well. The other option is to specialise. This is often used to grow a brand and build customer trust while slowly building up a larger audience. Both options have their advantages and it honestly depends on what kind of business you currently run. The idea here is to expand your business using either diversification or specialisation. It’s not quite black and white and there is plenty of overlap and strategies that incorporate both, but if you spread your resources too thinly then you’ll end up with a weak brand that doesn’t reach your customers.
Having the will to succeed
One of the biggest issues with growing your business out of your home is that you need to be mentally prepared. If you’re finding it hard and struggling to manage just your business at home, then you’ll find that it becomes increasingly difficult to manage as you rise up the ranks and hire employees, increase your customer base and handle difficult decisions. If you don’t have the will or mental fortitude to accept failures and grow your business, then you’re ultimately not going to get very far. Although it’s harsh to say this, if you don’t have the will to see your business grow and put in the time and effort required to expand your company, then it’s better to cut your losses early and drop out of the industry in favour of something else. However, if you do have the will to succeed, learn and grow your business, then it differentiates you between the hordes of startups out there.
