Key Areas You Need to Target For Your Business’s Expansion

As time moves on, it is likely that you are going to want – or need – to expand your business. You do not have to dread or put off this until it becomes a necessity. It should be an easily scalable objective that can be eased into. Of course, there will be areas that will require more planning than others, and it is important that you know and are fully aware of how you will go about each of them. 

#1 Expand and outsource IT 

One of the first areas you should think about when you are planning your business expansion is that of your IT department, as their workload will increase exponentially. This means that your current IT department may be unable to cope with the upcoming issues they could encounter. Hiring additional employees in this area is costly, so you may have to look at alternative measures. For instance, outsourcing all or some of your IT responsibilities could alleviate some problems. There are, in Los Angeles managed service provider that will take on all of your or some of the functions that an IT department would deal with regularly.

This can be even more beneficial to your business if you decide to go down the route of employing hybrid or remote workers. This is because when your employees are working outside of your business premises, they will inevitably be using different WIFI sources. This can leave your business vulnerable to cyber-attacks. A dedicated IT team will be able to close the cracks that can tempt these criminals, making your business far more secure.

#2 Staff training procedures

Introducing staff training procedures can also mean maintaining control over your employees and how they perform their tasks. Having a workforce working as one and completing daily tasks in exactly the same way can help with workload management. Especially when employees are off sick or taking a vacation, and others have to take over partly completed jobs. This will also help with other areas, such as performance and employee confidence. 

Of course, training should be ongoing, as if left, bad habits and corner-cutting could start to occur. It is also a big possibility that there may be changes to either the software used or procedures that will have to be handed down to the employees that are actually using these functions.

A growing workforce will require training to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing and what is expected of them. New recruits will most certainly benefit from having a buddy within their first month to make sure that they settle in and make new friends and a mentor for a long time afterward.

#3 Improve employee morale

With a large business, it is easy to lose sight of your employee’s morale or to think that it doesn’t matter. However, it most certainly does. Employee morale will affect every part of your business, whether good or bad. Bad morale in just a few employees can bring the mood of your employees down. It can slow down production, increase your rework rate, increase the amount of absenteeism, and lower your employee retention numbers. 

However, on the good side, high morale can reverse all of these and carry your business to new heights. Happy workers with high morale will do more for their bosses, enjoy their time at work and therefore take less time off, and they will work more effectively and take pride in their work. This ensures that your customers get value for money and will be happier, purchase more and recommend your business services to others. It is a win-win situation. 

Increasing your employee morale can be far easier than you think, and due to the amount of benefits both you and your business will get from it, is a worthwhile investment. Saying thank you to your employees is a good start, especially if it is a phrase that is not usually used around your place of work. Another far more meaningful way of boosting morale (and saying thank you for all your hard work) is to present your employees with meaningful gifts or hampers. 

#4 Expanding your office area 

Of course, to fit all of these additional employees into your business, you are going to have to expand your office area. Most businesses at this point will be looking to rent a further unit or move their business to a new location completely. Both of these options have their faults as far as running a business is concerned. 

For instance, renting an additional office unit to the one you currently use will undoubtedly mean that your business can proceed to function as it has. However, with this, you will have the additional expense of rising rents, insurance, and all the other expenses that go alongside renting a unit. 

However, rather than paying twice for everything every month for the foreseeable future, you may opt to just relocate to a much larger building. This will inevitably have your business to lose money as you will have to shut everything down for a few days to complete the move. Losing this much money and being faced with larger rent and additional bills that go with a larger establishment can put a very large strain on any business, but there are other options open to you.

Offering your office workers the opportunity to work on a hybrid basis can free up half of your office space. Working out a strict rota between your employees as to who is in the office on which days and who is working from their home will provide you with empty desks that you can then fill with new employees. The benefit of this is that those working as hybrid workers will already know the rope, leaving your new workers on-site to learn until they know what they are doing and can then also make the step to hybrid working conditions.

Of course, you can take this scenario one step further and offer your existing employees the opportunity to work remotely. This will empty out your office area so that you can concentrate on your new recruits or use the space to fulfill another part of your expanding business.

#5 Recruit worldwide

There are other benefits to remote working that do not just involve your current employees. If, for instance, you decide to start hiring your new recruits as remote workers, they will not have to work in your office at all. You will be able to widen your recruitment pool to include individuals much further afield from your premises than you have done before. Employing candidates out of state or even in other countries is not out of the question.

These individuals will bring with them other perks, such as additional knowledge and experience and, in some cases, bilingual skills, which only improve your business and help your customer service, especially if you are considering setting up a presence within that country. 

So, to wrap it all up.

Expansion should not be a daunting task, but you will have to think about it and do some research. Not all businesses will function well with hybrid working or, for that matter, remote workers, but it is important that you keep your business as safe as you possibly can by using the services of IT specialists. Every business will benefit from employees with high morale, and having well-trained employees pretty much speaks for itself.