5 things to do when growing a business
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Are you hoping to expand your business soon?
If you launched your business years ago, it may be time to make upgrades or enhancements to keep up with the ever-changing needs of your market and open doors to more exciting opportunities. This includes expanding into new markets, launching new products and services, increasing production capacity, improving operations, among others.
For a business growth plan to be successful, you need to make the right steps and strategies to reduce risks and to make sure your time and effort don't go to waste.
Here are five crucial actions to take when scaling your business.
1. Know your numbers
First, it’s important to be aware of how much money your business makes. It’s also paramount to look into the relative costs and benefits, as well as opportunities that would come with your proposed business expansion. See whether the benefits and opportunities would outweigh the costs. Doing so can help you determine whether you’re ready to expand, how much you’re willing to spend for it, and to what extent it can be done. This also ensures that your effort and resources don’t go to waste.
2. Check your competitors
Monitoring your competitors is also crucial in growing your venture as it helps you identify your areas for improvement. Figure out what works for them and see what you can apply to your own business. It could be innovating and offering products and services that they don’t have, or simply improving what you have in your business at the moment so you can be ahead of the competition.
3. Hire the right people
Business expansion is all about doing more and being more, so it’s good to have competent people who can help implement the changes effectively and strategically. Without the right people, your business won't be able to fully benefit from your expansion efforts. So make sure to set a budget for having the right people on your team.
Expansion is also an opportunity to resolve any problems or difficulties your employees are dealing with. Be sure to check in with your employees on their needs. They may even have suggestions and recommendations that can improve your business.
4. Set and follow a timeline
By setting a timeline, you can carefully monitor if your expansion is going according to plan. Make sure to have milestones so that you know when to adjust your business operations and projections as you roll out your expansion efforts.
If you're not getting the projected impact of your expansion at the expected time, you might need to refocus your efforts or evaluate how you're rolling out the changes. It's also okay to take a pause on your expansion, especially if something unexpected happens such as an economic downturn.
5. Choose the right loan option
Aside from effort, expanding your business requires money. Fortunately, there are good loan options to get you started. One of which is BDO SME Loan, which is designed to help you make your business growth plan a reality by letting you borrow funds for your needs.
BDO SME Loan has two variants. There’s the Term Loan, which is best for funding long-term business investments such as expansion and construction. The minimum loan amount is P1 million, while the maximum loan amount is P50 million. Available loan terms range from one to 10 years.
The SME Ready Check, meanwhile, lets you use a pool of funds as needed via a revolving credit line, making it ideal for short-term operational expenses. You can loan from P3 million to P50 million, with one-year validity and the option to renew afterward.
You can use the following kinds of real estate property as collateral for your BDO SME Loan:
• House and lot
• Commercial property
• Vacant lot
• Condominium
• Townhouse
• Mixed-use property (residential/commercial)
The loan option is for business owners who are at least 21 years old at the start of the loan term, and not older than 70 by the end of the loan term. To qualify, your business must be profitable for at least two consecutive years with a minimum of P1 million in annual gross sales. It must also be within a BDO-serviceable area.
Apart from the application form, prepare your identification, income, and property or collateral documents. Upon submission of requirements, you can expect to have the bank’s decision on your loan application within 10 banking days.
BDO offers the BDO SME Loan to new and existing clients. Applications can be done online via their official website and in person via their different branches nationwide. Know more about BDO SME Loan here.
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Editor's Note: BrandedUp is designed to provide you with insightful, inspiring, and educational content created by PhilSTAR L!fe in collaboration with brands like BDO.