For many of you, working for yourself in a home-based business is ideal. It means you have a balanced lifestyle, enough income to support you and your family, and you don’t have to endure an arduous commute.
Yet for many others, starting a business and running it from home is just the start of a planned journey of growth. Working at the kitchen table is useful to begin with for saving valuable cash, but they want to build their brand or grow an agency — things that will need a move up through the gears.
For an entrepreneur to grow a business, there are various hoops to jump through. In the short term, most will unavoidably cost money. But in the long-term, if all goes to plan, the savings will be more than covered by increased turnover and profit.
So, what are the steps a home-based entrepreneur should look at to grow?
Marketing
So long as you’re doing it right, then the more you invest in marketing, the more business you’ll win. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommend that you spend between 7 and 8 percent of your gross revenue (not profit) on marketing.
Many smaller, home-based businesses will not spend anywhere near that figure. But to win new orders or sign up new clients, you must get your name out there. Marketing covers a wide range of disciplines, but you might begin with digital advertising spend or social media marketing.
The key is to make sure that when you begin to grow, you ramp up your marketing spend accordingly, maintaining that 7 to 8 percent marketing spend.
Taking on New People
Unless you’re some sort of small business superhero, you can’t do everything yourself. At some point, you must seek an extra pair of hands to help with your growing client base. There are several ways to do this. You might, at first, prefer to seek the help of freelancers to work with you while you get used to having more responsibility.
The so-called gig economy is flying, and no matter what sort of assistance you need, you’ll find someone who will work on an ad-hoc basis. Whether it’s someone to help with your marketing, someone to hit the phones servicing customers, or a field sales rep to hit the road and meet prospective clients, there’s plenty of opportunities.
However, you may prefer to hire someone full-time. Hiring an employee is a scary prospect at first — it comes with more significant overheads, and you must meet all the employment legislation. There’s also the slightly tricky problem that if the new hire doesn’t shape up, it could be a costly procedure to get rid of them.
Office Space
As you expand, either with new employees or freelancers, you will want to give the impression that you have a smart city center office. It will inspire confidence in your customers, who might have been otherwise surprised to find that you work from your kitchen.
The good news is you don’t have to start by renting your own office — an expensive overhead you could do without. Instead, by making use of one of the many coworking office spaces, you have two fundamental benefits.
Firstly, you can use it as a convenient virtual office, using it as a mailing address and collection point and giving you that prestigious business address you need. You can also use a conference room facility and use the space to meet clients if you need it.
Secondly, you have the option to “hot desk” in a coworking office, so that you can work out of it on occasion, reaping the benefits of meeting like-minded people.
Refinancing to Grow
Growing a business organically can be too slow for some, and they need a cash injection to speed things along. Investing in new services or products or hiring extra people will require cash you may not have. Refinancing is a healthy option, ensuring you have the working capital you need when you need it.
Perhaps you already have a business loan? It might make sense to source a new package, consolidating an existing loan, which you might get on better finance terms. This allows you to access more cash at potentially a better rate.
Business loans are not just issued in times of crisis; they are always available for businesses with a solid strategy.
Above All Else, Have a Plan
Whichever route you take to grow your home business, don’t rush into it. You can never plan enough — have a clear vision of where you want to be, how you intend to get there, and how you will finance it.
Only then can you make the critical decisions that will grow your home business into something much bigger.
