E476: Ask Coach – When Should I Plan On Expanding
The best time to plan your business expansion is before you are forced to.
Q: Times are going well, should I start looking to expand? If so, should I expand my region or my market?
A: Yes, the time to start planning for expansion is before you need to.
- The best time to plan is before there is a problem
- If you are doing well start planning – things will change
- Master the core now while planning for growth
- Set aside a little time for master planning
- Should you expand your region or your niche?
- Ultimately this varies based on your business
- In general, region is Okay for growth but not for long term stability
- If the data-center market dies it will affect all regions
- The best solution for a solid future is expanding your niche
- Niche can mean several things
- The type of work you perform
- The type of client you work for
- Commercial clients are different from Government clients
- The reason niches work better is because the economic cycles may not be so closely linked
- Developer spending will often be on a different cycle than Government spending
- Hopefully one is going up as the other is going down