How to Expand Your Business Without Expanding The Hours That You Work

Some business people have a dream to expand their business but then become disappointed by the way that they have to invest more time and energy to do that. Unless you are a workaholic, you likely want to have more freedom and more money but, in order for this to happen you will need to do several things:

1. Be very clear with yourself about what you want out of the business (time, money, activity, celebrity). Expanding a business does not necessarily mean that you will have any of these. In fact, they might steal your freedom and reputation or use up your profits.

2. Carefully consider whether expanding your business will really help you to get these things. If it won't, then don't do it! Many companies do all the research and invest in preliminaries and then have to back out of their plans. Think of the global soda pop company's dilemma when they introduced new formula only to have their customers rebel. They ended up bringing back the original product.

3. Develop a master mind group of individuals who have wisdom and experience to advise you regarding this. You might be so close to the idea that you miss seeing the difficulties that your idea will encounter.

4. Think of the options that you have to expand that will not require ongoing time and energy from you in the future. Can you hire someone or a company that you can trust to do the job for you?

5. Prepare yourself to plan and set up the expansion yourself. You may need to hire staff, create a product, contract with outsourcing companies or outline a process that will be adopted. Wishing doesn't make it so. This will take your time and focus at least in the beginning to ensure that things will go as well as you had hoped.

6. Set a launch date and marketing program for the expansion. Again, you might be able to use resources to help you with this.

You see, you might be able to set up a product that, once developed, can be produced and delivered by someone else. Even services can be outsourced.

What cannot be done without your input, however, is the planning and decision-making. You see, this is your business. As former US President Truman said "The buck stops here". You are the one who will benefit or end up with problems based on how the expansion is designed and implemented.