Expanding your business into new markets can increase revenue. But before you leap head-first into a market that appears to be enticing for your company, you might want to take a more careful look.

Most of us are excellent at a lot of things. The problem is deciding what aspect of our businesses we want to expand. If someone sends us a Request for proposal (RFP) out of the blue, we have a tendency to say, “Well, I can do that.”

What you need to decide, though, is whether you want to do that. Just because you are capable of fulfilling what’s requested in an RFP doesn’t mean you should do it. Expanding your business and developing new markets for your services can be a good thing. Going after every new market in which businesses will only purchase a little bit of your services is not.
Before you boldly go into new markets, assess the robustness of your infrastructure, expand wisely and sensibly, and avoid scattering your expansion efforts all over the place.

If you are expanding locally, regionally, or globally, target prospects who will purchase more than a little bit of your service offerings. Fulfilling lots of small contracts generated from buyers scattered about may prevent you from honouring a really sweet deal with a customer who is willing to purchase volume from you on a repeat basis.

In addition, taking on a lot of “one-and-done” projects may prevent you from focusing on areas of business and technical mastery that are part of your professional development plan.

If you want to expand your business, start by doing these five things:
1. Shrink the Scope of Your Focus

To expand your business, narrow your focus. Identify the one capability or service offering that is robust and applicable across multiple markets. That service will become the forefront of your expansion
2. Offer a Service that Is Profitable and Works for Your Business Model

Make your initiative as straightforward and simple as possible. Lead with your strong suit. You and your team should be comfortable with your expansion offering. Newly created deliverables should easily fit into your operations model without stressing internal capabilities or personnel. That way your team will be able to utilise your company’s real-time experience with your offering, documenting quality output with real-life business cases and customer testimonials. Your expansion initiative should not involve speculation.
3. Determine New Marketplaces Where Your Presence Will Be Welcome and Makes Sense

There’s a tendency to feel your offering is relevant to multiple markets. Everybody wants what you have, right? That may be the case, but you need to decide the most logical marketplace for your initial expansion efforts. Otherwise, your customers and potential customers in new marketplaces might be left scratching their heads at something that makes no sense to them. Your expansion efforts should be logical, almost a no-brainer, to the targeted potential customers in your new marketplaces.
4. Leverage Your Experience in Established Marketplaces

If you don’t already have an expert panel of customers you regularly seek feedback from, it’s time to establish one. These existing customers are your most loyal, A-list buyers who utilised the breadth and depth of your current service offerings. Even though you will lead into new markets with your expansion offer, your expert panel can serve as references for your new business acquisition.

The members of this panel become part of your expansion strategy as well. When speaking with your prospects, expert panel members won’t limit their discussion to whether or not they use your service. They’ll also “pre-sell” the rest of your competitive arsenal.
5. Target Buyers Who Will Offer Solid Opportunities

Be bold when expanding. Don’t get sucked into small wins that use up internal resources and clog operations and throughput for the rest of your customers. Instead, identify potential customers who have the most respect within your new expansion markets. Initiate business development discussions with them. These target customers become part of your expansion strategy and can become your greatest resources for information—and ultimately your best advocates—within your new marketplaces.

While these target buyers may not initially buy from you, the goodwill you generate by initially seeking out their opinion can be the source of referrals. With their reference leading you to new prospects, often there is less scepticism and reluctance to give you a solid, mid-sized opportunity to prove your capabilities.

As you look to expand your business, you will find you have far more control over the quality and quantity of your new business relationships. You also will create greater opportunity for building a loyal and retained client base.