Business expansion strategy tips for tradespeople

Do you run a small to medium-sized business? Are you looking to expand? If this sounds like you, our Enterprise model can help you unlock the true potential of your business!

Once your business is up and running it can be tempting to sit back and relax. Having a business expansion strategy in place is important however, as every situation is different.

For starters, what happens if you begin struggling to find paying customers? This may not be a huge problem for larger companies, but for small to medium-sized businesses, it can be a real concern. That is why using business expansion strategies are essential.

Want to learn more? Keep reading to dive deeper into this and other areas including market expansion strategy and how to promote new services.

Common business expansion strategies

Let’s begin with a closer look at how business expansion strategies can help your growing business. The most important thing to consider here is learning how to deal with the extra work generated using market expansion strategies (more on this later).

You can grow your business by:

Hiring new employees

If you have plenty of work, one of the quickest business expansion strategies is to simply take on new employees. This will mean an initial investment in tools, vans and training, as well as continued overheads, so ensure your profit margins are correct before taking the leap.

It will be worth the extra expense though as new workers can take on more work and will help to generate more revenue over time.

Franchising

If you have painstakingly built up a fantastic reputation and branding, you may have the option of franchising your business.

This involves letting other companies operate under your brand and company name while paying you an agreed upon amount every month/quarter.

This will prevent you from needing to pay out for hiring a new employee and means no irritating overheads in the long run. Although, you need to still have some oversight in case they do poor quality work or take other actions that could damage your brand.

Outsourcing

If you simply don’t have the resources to deal with extra work and don’t have the time to look into hiring or franchising, outsourcing can be a great option.

This involves paying another business to do the work, while you take a cut of the profits and deal with the customer management.

Online platforms

Consider joining an online platform like Checkatrade to raise the visibility of your business and connect with more customers.

As an established businesses with regional or national coverage, you could consider our Enterprise scheme. We'll help you generate even more leads and support your continued growth with a dedicated account manager.

What are your market expansion strategy options?

Having a market expansion strategy will help you to reach more customers and generate more work for your business.

There are a number of brilliant ways to do this. And if you don’t have the time to manage this yourself, there are a range of companies who can provide the service for you.

Consider using the following market expansion strategies:

Market to new customers

Marketing is particularly helpful when used in conjunction with business expansion strategies and you have a wide variety of channels to use.

Consider setting up a social media account with pictures and testimonials of your past work. Build a website, develop your branding, use paid ads on search engines, run a story in the local paper, even use your van for advertising. The opportunities are endless.

Cover new areas

Another way of reaching new customers is to expand your business to cover larger areas. This will mean charging a premium for customers who live further away, or you could hire workers from different areas to cover these new places.

Change your target customers

You could choose to target different customers than you currently do. Why not start working with corporate or even industrial clients?

Offer discounts

If you want to reach new customers, word of mouth can be very successful. If your customers are happy with your work, offer discounts to anyone they refer to you. You could even offer price reductions for repeat business.

Want to grow even further? Put together a business development plan that includes your growth strategy ideas.

How to promote new services

You may have been operating the same way for a number of years so now is a great time to make a change. Choosing to promote new services can help your business to grow and flourish.

Wondering where to begin? Use the following tips to support your expanding business:

Invest in your employees

Build up your employee’s skill levels and knowledge by investing in training for them. You could also hire new employees who are already trained in different areas.

You can then offer these new services to your customers to increase your client base and boost profits.

Embrace marketing

Remember the different marketing channels we mentioned? Using social media, your website or advertising is the perfect way to let customers know you are now offering new services.

As a trade business, you'll probably already have some marketing in place. If you have a regional or national reach, your Checkatrade account will help you market further. A dedicated account manager will be assigned to your strategy to help you find the best way towards your business growth with us.

Upsell to current customers

Listen to your current customers whenever they mention another part of their home or premises they are unhappy with.

If you want to promote new services, upselling to these customers is a great option.

Buy new tools and equipment

If you are planning to offer different services you will need to purchase some new tools and equipment to deal with the demand. Investing is your business is an excellent way to encourage business growth.

Partner up

Find someone else who offers a different service and refer them work. It’s up to you if you want to do this for commission or not. In exchange they would do the same for you, helping raise awareness of your services too.

Why not choose Checkatrade?

Choosing to join our existing community of valued tradespeople is a decision you won’t regret. With a unique profile page, you can show off customer testimonials and photos of past jobs, reaching new customers has never been easier.

In fact, we make it easier than ever for customers to find you with our dedicated search feature, connecting customers and tradespeople in seconds.

Regardless of the size of your trade business, we can help you find a new audience. With millions of job searches on our website every year, we'll help homeowners find you with ease.

Expand your business with Enterprise

If you are a medium to larger sized trade business, and still want to expand, our Enterprise solution could be for you. Even if you're already an established business, when you want to increase your leads, target a key demographic, or grow your profits, then Checkatrade can help your business reach its goals.

Some benefits of our Enterprise model include:

• Help with directly targeting homeowners in your area

• High quality leads that really convert

• Professional advice from your dedicated account manager

• Monthly reports to keep track of business growth

• Tailored packages to suit your business plans

If you run a medium to larger business, either regionally or nationally, Enterprise is perfect for you! By and large this account package is suited to upwards of 2/3 vans and 10 or more employees.

FAQs

What new services should I offer?

The best way to choose new areas to branch out into is to speak to your customers. It may even be that several of your customers are considering the same new project. You could also look into the services offered by similar companies to yourselves or do market research to identify potential areas for expansion.

How can I bounce back after a quiet patch?

During the lockdown of COVID-19, many people put off renovations for safety reasons. So it made sense that there was an influx of new customers once restrictions were lifted. When your business goes through similar droughts, having a business expansion strategy in place will you help plan ahead.

Why not update your website with more examples of your work or start building your brand? You could also invest in new tools for greater efficiency or speak to past customers to see if they know of anyone looking for help.

Consider giving your advertising a boost (such as paid ads on search engines, adverts in local papers, even radio ads if you have the budget). As a growing business, you'll have more resources than others, so why not invest it back to help you grow quicker?

What are my business expansion strategy options?

• Joining Checkatrade comes with a range of benefits and will help give your business credibility

• Pursuing a market expansion strategy is a great way of finding new customers

• Another way to build up your small company is to develop and promote new services

• Regardless of size, you still need to reach new customers and upsell existing ones

• Business expansion strategies, such as outsourcing and franchising, are ideal if you have an influx of customers but don’t have the capacity to take on new work