Knowing how and when to expand your business can be the difference between achieving great success and triggering a financial crisis. For best results, any expansion should be based on a clear opportunity rather than a hasty attempt to generate revenue.

To make sure your business expansion doesn't end in disaster, we've rounded up four questions to ask yourself before taking the plunge.

Are you ready?

If all goes well, your expansion will lead to an increase in business, but are you ready to handle the extra workload?

Think about how your needs will change depending on how busy your business gets, and develop a plan for various scenarios.

Talk to your suppliers about the possibility of increasing your orders, plan for additional staff if necessary, and look into upgrading tools or software to increase efficiency. You may not get slammingly busy straight away, but if you do, you had better be ready.

What's happening around you?

The more you know about the competitive landscape you will be entering, the easier it will be to tell if, when, and how to expand.

If others are already doing what you plan on doing, find out who they are, what they do and how they do it. Take a good look at competitor's websites, online profiles and marketing campaigns, and learn from how they talk about themselves and their products, as well as the tone they use to engage their customers.

Does your move make sense?

For your expansion to be successful it needs to align with your core brand ideals. If it doesn't, it is unlikely to resonate well with consumers.

For example, it made sense for Microsoft to expand beyond computers into the interactive TV market, but they probably wouldn't have much luck selling surfboards.

If you plan on diving into an entirely new market, ensure it is somehow related to your business needs or those of your customers; otherwise you may need to at least partially rebrand.

What's your entry strategy?

Regardless of whether you will be a pioneer in a new market or joining a crowded field, the way you make your entrance matters.

First of all, carefully consider factors that may be different from your existing operations, especially those related to geography, culture, age and gender.

If your business will be the first one in, you will need an effective way to explain who you are, what you are doing and why it matters – a multi-channel digital marketing campaign can help here.

If you are a late-arrival, your challenge will be finding a way to stand out – whether you are the cheapest, the best or the most environmentally friendly, identify your competitive edge and highlight it.

Want More?

Need extra insights into how to make the most out of your business? These articles can help:

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How to Find and Keep the Best Talent

How To Create a Company Culture With Only 3 People

Written by Jane Murray on Thursday, September 17, 2015

Jane Murray is a freelance copywriter based in Sydney. Apart from writing up a storm for the DesignCrowd blog on anything from logo design to Michael Jackson's shoes, she enjoys reading literary science fiction and hanging out with most animals except wasps. Get in touch via LinkedIn.