Developing Your Business
Once you’ve successfully established your business, you’ll want to aim for steady growth and development so that your ventures remain profitable. Expanding your business means constant planning, analysis and innovation. You will need to have a detailed overview of the current state of your business, and have reasonable expectations for the future. However, you must also continue to maintain and control the day-to-day operations of your business.
Developing your business means you might:
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Advantages of being small
Although developing your business is important to ensure growing profits, expansion is a long-term financial commitment. Meanwhile, there are many advantages to being a small or medium-sized business – capitalising on these by carefully planning and managing your business is the key to maximising productivity and profitability.
Advantage in the labour market
During a time of cost-cutting, recession and outsourcing, many employees worry about their job security. Working for a smaller business means increased job security and therefore, increased employee loyalty. Working for a small or mid-sized organization also means more individual responsibility and challenge – roles are more varied and result in greater employee satisfaction. You can use this advantage in the labour market to attract better employees whilst retaining those that you already have.
Innovation
To stay ahead of your competitors, conform to market demands and utilise emerging technologies and market trends, it is important to invest some time and money into innovation. However, large businesses are often constrained by complex hierarchical systems (including shareholders and investors)…. Smaller businesses are much more flexible – they can focus on long-term profitability rather than short-term earnings and are able to invest into profitable future ventures.
Closeness to the market
It is often thought that the larger your market share, the more profitable your business. But this is not always true: as your market share grows, the more remote you become from that market. Smaller businesses are closer to their market, meaning they can identify and respond to market changes sooner and more effectively than their larger counterparts.
