Running a home-based business can be extremely profitable as working in the home helps cut down on overhead expenses. This can even come in handy during tax time as the workspace in your home can be claimed as an expense. In order to maximize income potential, plenty of entrepreneurs that have had success at home try to expand this business into an actual office location.
Far too many companies have tried to grow too quickly and have ruined their company’s reputation. It does not make many mistakes or clients being alienated in order for the opinion to change on a company in their niche. The business world is far smaller than many people realize so a commitment to customer service could not be more important. Below are tips to help you grow your home-based business without impacting your brand’s reputation.
Funding For An Office Space/Other Expenses
The first thing that needs to be discussed or planned for is that of receiving funding. Office space can be extremely expensive depending on your location so you might need to take out a loan or find an investor. Creating a business plan is going to be necessary whether you are getting a small business loan or pitching an investor. We will see more and more businesses having remote workers and investors are getting more comfortable with fully distributed work from home teams.
Having multiple investors allows a company to leverage investor relationships as investors will want the best return possible so they will be willing to make introductions. The company should only lease out an office space that they need rather than an office they think they will grow into over the next few years. This will reduce the amount of money needed for an effective expansion which helps keep cash flow healthy.
Keep A Focus On Client Relationships
Expanding means targeting larger clients and a much larger volume of clients total. This can lead to a company providing worse customer service due to the number of clients being taken on. A CRM is a tool that can help with this as noting what a client said during a call last month can make them feel valued when it is mentioned this month. Clients that do not feel valued can take their business elsewhere so building this rapport is imperative. If visiting a city to meet with a client, take the time to schedule a few other meetings with clients in the area. Face to face meetings are important and a client will know they are valued by meeting with them on a business trip. The clients do not have to know you met with 6 of them so they could deduce you are on the trip just to meet with them.
Only Use Reliable Freelancers To Help Scaling Your Home-Based Business
Expansion can be helped by using the services of freelancers to save time as well as money. There is no shortage of reliable freelancers but you will have to search for them as it can be tough to sift through those that have no regard for deadlines or quality of work. A great example would be a content production company as hiring writers in-house could cost far more than outsourcing this work.
An editor would have to be in-house to assess the quality of the work before it was delivered to the client. Being able to turn over 500 articles in a week not only allows the company to take on huge orders but they also know their processes will not break with increased volume. Virtual assistants can also take care of work that you might not have time to do like that setting up meetings, email monitoring, and answering calls.
Start Attending Industry Conferences/Tradeshows
Attending industry conferences or tradeshows can be extremely profitable as it contains a high concentration of people in your industry. Contracts are signed at these events and relationships garnered here can result in a mutually beneficial business relationship that could last for years. Create a list of people that you would want to meet with or you know are attending.
Social media is usually a great place to research attendees of a conference if the list is not made public. People usually use the conference hashtag so compiling a list of people you would want to meet with or pitch can be quite easy. You will receive business cards so make sure to write down on the back something that was unique to the conversation. This can be incredibly helpful when following up via email the week after the conference. People do not always remember names but might be able to put a face to a conversation they had.
Expanding your home-based business is going to be a risk but remember you can always revert back to this. Increase your income potential with this expansion and ensure its success by utilizing the tips above!
