One of the best ways for a business to turn over more cash and increase the profit is to expand into other areas. Areas where revenue streams can be developed and tapped in to. Finding these markets can be hard, and they’re of course industry specific. The trick is to do it without overstretching yourself, and to be able to test the waters to see if your idea will succeed without necessarily wasting too much money. Now is better than ever to do this. So many businesses have had to shut down due to Coronavirus. Others have had to lay off staff, or decide to close down certain operations. If you have the ability to push into new areas, you might just save yourself running into a wall and flatlining your business. There’s undoubtedly going to be a global recession, where businesses struggle even more in the wake of Covid-19. Look ahead. If you can see any holes to push into with your business, you might just mitigate the issues the recession might bring.
New Products To Ship
If you sell specialty or even general products, then it’s usually easy to start selling more of them. If you just distribute these, it’s even easier. The trick is finding a gap in the market and then selling on a product into that market. If you manufacture products yourself, you may have more difficulty as there are updated guidelines for manufacturing during COVID-19. Whatever you decide to do, it has to be backed up by well informed market research. Will the items you want to manufacture or simply just sell on be needed and wanted during a recession? Are they a luxury item or a necessity? Luxuries will be bought less if the recession bites particularly hard. Focus on your due diligence and remember that areas all will respond differently. This is also the case with whole countries. Some will be hit worse than others. Research is the only true chance at success if you push new products.
Expand Into The Online Space
If you don’t currently have an online presence, now is the time to cultivate one. Some businesses are still high street operated or have no actual need to operate online. The issue here is that if something goes wrong, like it likely has with Covid-19, then your business won’t have any other option than to close. If you move into another area, you might be able to have money coming in from another stream. First you need to analyse what you do and work out whether it is suitable for the online space. It probably is. In fact, if you look online you might find competitors from other areas doing just the same. Look at what they do and work out how to best emulate them. It can be costly to do so, so make sure you really put the research in to see whether it would be cost effective. Pushing into the online space can range from simply setting yourself up on social media, to paying a lot of money to developers to set up your website.
Use Your Competitors
If you want to move in a new direction, have a look at what your competitors have done or are doing. This might be something you’ve resisted in the past, but it doesn’t mean outright copying them. Instead it gives you something to work off. If they operate in the same sphere of business as yourself, and have moved into other areas, this can be a logical step for you to take. Essentially, you can see whether that element has been successful or not and can use it to your advantage.
Employees May Have Ideas Too
If you’re struggling for ideas too you can use your employees. Especially those who have been in your sphere or industry for a long time and have experience outside of your workplace. Ideas sometimes come right from the bottom. Those people who are helping you run your business. It’s always worth asking them what’s going on and how they think the business can grow. They might have seen interest from somewhere else, or perhaps they have had a direct query. Brainstorm some ideas with them and see what they can come up with. For a start, this will increase morale because it shows that you’re willing to listen to other people’s comments and it also shows you’re fighting for your business and by extension your employees’ futures. You can do this online if you didn’t want to meet up due to Covid, think about Microsoft Teams or Zoom to conduct your meeting.
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