In Show 028 – When and How to Expand Your Business originally broadcast on Facebook Live on Wednesday 01 November 2017 we explore this interesting topic.
Show Notes
Today we start Phase 7: Expansion of the Business Legal Lifecycle. Expansion, franchising and licensing is the goal for many business start-ups. We all want to create a profitable and stable company. Once that’s achieved new problems begin to raise their heads. When should you begin to expand the company? What about franchising your business model? It’s those questions we want to address today.
How can I expand?
Everyone wants to expand into a new market or grow their business in some other way. The question is when to do it. We have come across many business owners who want to expand but at not in the right position to do so successfully. You need to have all the systems in place that are able to scale up. When we first expanded our business to two offices we didn’t have the right business software in place and it created a lot of headaches. You have to ask yourself where the bottlenecks are in your business. What is going to slow you down? What is your business plan for the future? Without answers to those questions you are going to run into problems.
Space
Expansion often means increasing your physical footprint. To that end you are going to need new office space. Getting that right can make or break your growth plans. Is the building you’re purchasing correctly zoned for your business? Do you have all of your financing in place? Do you have a plan if you can’t make your mortgage payments? Planning out all the possible scenarios will help you make your physical expansion work smoothly.
Employees
More work means more staff. Who they are and what that looks like is a question you need to put to your lawyers and mentors. Do you need a receptionist in both offices? Or is one enough? You also need to think about your employment policies. You need to ensure that you have a consistent policy in place before expansion about their rights and responsibilities. This becomes even more important if you are planning on franchising your business.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Both of these are the riskier methods of expanding your business. You need your lawyers involved from the start. A hand-shake agreement is not going to work. We have seen on a number of occasions where two friends merged their businesses only to realize that there visions are not compatible. All of those agreements need to be worked out well in advance so there are no surprises.
Equipment
You can expand your business by acquiring new assets to do more work. How are how are you buying that equipment? Most businesses are not going to be able to use cash. That means your lease or mortgage agreements need to maximize your cost-savings. The Personal Property Security Register is also useful to ensure that the equipment you are obtaining doesn’t belong to somebody else. Check out Show 014 to learn more.
More about this Show
We started Business Legal Lifecycle to create a simple way for you to understand complex legal terms. Most importantly we want to help you to develop a plan to take your business successfully into the future. There’s a startling statistic the underscores the importance of developing a solid plan. The majority of business owners are just seven months away from losing everything. A single aspect of your business that is not set-up correctly can shut down your whole operation very quickly. Legal advice is not cheap and even when you can afford it there is often a divide between lawyers and their clients. We want to close that gap once and for all. We want to put legal knowledge and tools into your hand to prevent the worst from happening to you.
Twice a week we are going to deliver those tools right to your home or office with Business Legal Lifecycle TV. We’ll start the week with Fast Fix Monday, a short 5-10 minute video that will tackle a single issue that businesses have to deal with. Then on Wednesday’s our main show will feature with more fulsome discussions and interviews all delivered in a straightforward and easy to understand format.
