Questions to Ask Yourself when Expanding Your Business

Questions, it is always good to ask questions and even better to ask the correct questions. Even though there are no 'dumb' questions there can be too many questions. As marketers we know the value of asking the same question over and over again in different ways as to decrease our chase for bad data. However, that is not the case when investigating international expansion. There are several categories of questions we should ask before making plans to expand.

First we have to ask about the 'General Market'.

Is there a Market?
How large is the Market?
What is the current Trend in the Market?
Is there an unmet need we can fulfill?
What is the statistical amount of success speaking in $$?

Next we need to ask questions about 'Environmental Factors'.

What is the Culture Like? Are they accessible for our Products?
Language Barriers?
Cultural Differences?
Current Economic status, can they support our expansion?
GDP?
Expendable income?
What are the Government, rules, regulations, restrictions?
What is the current technology level, do we need to advance or decline?
What are the exact demographics and geo-demographics?

Lastly we need to ask about 'Industry Barriers'.

Who are our closest competitors?
How far are they from us and how competitive are their prices?
What are the sources for raw materials/do we have to compete for them?
What is the cost to expand into this area?
Machinery?
Raw Goods?
Workforce?
Licenses/Fees?

As these questions are answered and numbers are crunched we can get a better picture of how fruitful this expansion can be. However, as we answer these starting questions there will be a new group of questions arising.

A set of questions that will need to be tackled include 'Product Difficulties'

Does there need to be modifications made to products?
Cost of modifications? Cost effective?
Do mods sacrifice our final product?
Is supple chain of raw materials sufficient to facilitate our expansion?
Fill our projected Growth?
Maintain quality materials?
Who will construct our products?
Local workers?
Outsourcing?

Next we need to know about a new 'Facility'

Do we need to build a new facility?
What are the regulations regarding construction?
Who will man the facility?
Do we have proper estimates on size of facility needed?
Will we expand our current facility?
Do we have man power to operate expanded facility?
Where will we find them?
Regulations on building contracts and zoning?
Cost of Facility new/expanded?

Lastly we need to ask about 'Staffing'

Who will staff the expanded business?
How will they be trained?
What is their Rate of Pay? Can we afford it?
How many additional bodies do we need?
What positions need to be filled?
What if any new positions are available?

It is very important that we answer all the questions and ask the most responsive questions. These are the questions that feed the bottom line and can give us exact answers to these issues. As these questions are answered, some of the smaller questions have answers created without even needing to ask them. Bottom line is, the more research you do the better prepared you are for success.