Article submitted by Grace Murphy 

The past 12 months have put a strain on the world’s economy, leaving businesses facing an uncertain future. 

Preparing for the unexpected is a challenge, especially for business leaders looking to expand their organisation. 

Now might not seem like the best time to grow your company, but many industries are actually expanding thanks to the pandemic. 

These sectors include food delivery, remote working solutions and more. So, if you’re looking to take advantage of significant growth in your market and expand your business, then check out these practical tips.  

Hire The Right Staff  

A business is only as good as the staff that drive it, so you need to make sure that you hire and retain the right team members. Make sure that you focus just as much on your existing team as you do on new arrivals so that you can nurture their talents and promote them from within. 

When it comes to hiring new staff for your growing business, you need to be selective and ensure that you only hire the talent you need. As many businesses have failed to adapt to the pandemic, there are a wide array of employees dealing with or facing unemployment right now. There might be a lot of applications for any vacancy that you advertise, but that doesn’t mean you should hire the first person that applies. Take the time to read all of the applications and interview them before you select the ones that can help to grow your organisation.  

Choose Reliable Service Providers That Can Grow With Your Business 

Growing your business is impossible without a lot of support. While your internal team will play a significant role in your company’s growth, so too will external service providers. As such, you need to look for reliable companies that can give you the support you need and grow with your business. 

One service that you should consider outsourcing is your company’s IT management. Using a company with a broad service offering and extensive experience in offering IT support will save you time and effort. One such company is GeekGuru, who provide business IT support in Birmingham and throughout the UK. With their help, you can get all the services you need throughout your company’s growth. As it expands, you can add or change the services you need. If you bring your IT in-house, then their team can provide complimentary support throughout the onboarding stage and well into the future.  

Work Out What Your Clients Want And How You Can Do Better 

As you’re expanding your business, you need to think about the most important stakeholders in this process: your clients. So, you need to review the challenges that they are facing and how you can help them to overcome them. Consider creating detailed customer personas and exploring their pain points and what your business could do to help. You can also review customer feedback and consider reaching out to regular clients to see if there is anything else that you can do for them.  

Additionally, it would help if you thought about what you and your competitors are offering and what more you can do. Explore the offerings of your closest competitors to see if there are any gaps that you could fill. Equally, if your competitors are adapting in a specific way, then you should examine this and see if you can emulate it to ensure that your business is always offering the best possible quality of service and support to your clients.   

Check Out All The Funding Options Available To You 

As you grow, you might find that you need more capital to fund your company’s projects. While there are many private business funding options, you should also check out the business funding solutions that UK Government has to offer.  

These solutions include grants, which don’t need to be repaid, and low or zero-interest loans. That means that you can get the support you need for free, as opposed to working with private lenders, who charge interest on any loans that they provide. So, explore all of the options available to you to make sure that you fund your business expansion the right way and save as much money as you can.  

Be Flexible And Adapt Quickly To Changes In The Market  

In an uncertain market, you have to futureproof your organisation by making sure that you’re agile and able to adapt promptly to shifts in your market or changes in consumer behaviour. That means creating a culture of flexibility and keeping up to date with the latest market fluctuations. 

So, consider signing up for newsletters from your fellow industry experts and governing bodies. You should then use the information that they provide to make fast decisions. Consider implementing changes slowly before the change occurs in full, then rolling it out throughout the business if it is successful.  

With a proactive mindset and the right support behind you, it’s possible to grow your organisation even during an ongoing and ever-evolving worldwide crisis.