Remember when you first started your business? You developed your lists of questions that needed answers, sought advice from professionals and then moved forward. You have been successful.

Now you find yourself at another crossroads. Expansion. Now what? In many ways the process is similar. You assess what got you to where you are; and determine the signs that are telling you — now is the time to expand your business.

Every business is unique. When you’re thinking about expanding or staying the course as an accomplished organization…

Here are 11 signs you should invest in expanding your business:

1. Expansion will result in cost advantages for your business.
2. Your customers like your product or service and keep asking when you are going to expand.
3. You can no longer fill customer needs in a timely manner. If customers are leaving empty handed or going to your competitor because you are “too busy” then the time has come to do something. Consider a business expansion loan.
4. Your market study finds that your existing customers will remain loyal while you work through any growing pains.
5. New products or services might force you to change the way you do business.
6. Have you noticed yourself stressing out less about the fate of your company? When consulting with your manager or other employees, does it seem like they have everything under control? These are signs that you’ve done an excellent job starting and running your company and suggest that you’re ready for a bigger challenge.
7. Employees can no longer keep up with production demands. They begin making more and more mistakes and missing deadlines.
8. By expanding or encroaching on your customer base, your business competitors sometimes force your hand. Their success or failure could provide insight into what expansion might look like for your company. Use social media reviews and other types of research to determine how they have fared since opening up new locations.
9. Sometimes growth means diversifying rather than duplicating your original model. Diversifying is an excellent growth strategy, as it allows you to have multiple streams of income that can often fill seasonal voids and, of course, increase sales and profit margins.
10. Evidence based research shows there is demand for your product and service.
11. Government regulations force additional equipment or other costly changes.

Getting Your Expansion Financed

Can I afford expanding the business?

In today’s market, a loan for commercial property is not easy to come by. With big lenders struggling to survive the market, receiving a loan on commercial property for your business may be a bit more difficult than anticipated.

People who are getting a business expansion loan are often being forced to leverage large pieces of collateral, such as their homes. This adds a lot of risk to any type of business expansion loan because failure could mean the loss of not only your livelihood, but your home as well.

Minimizing Your Risk

Getting started with business expansion financing once you have decided to take the initial steps toward expansion, consider exactly how you will make it happen. If it is only internal growth, put together a plan for how you will allocate resources and what you will do to make your current business bigger and better.

Federal government small business loans, through the Small Business Administration (SBA), are one option. SBA is committed to helping small businesses, which are the backbone of the nation’s economy, thrive with government-funded loans for small business. Working closely with a wide range of lending partners that includes Chelsea State Bank, SBA has developed a wide range of financial programs that address the various needs of small businesses.

Chelsea State Bank offers a number of SBA guaranteed loan programs: SBA 7(a) Loans, Certified Development Company 504 SBA loan, and the Microloan program, which provides loans up to $50,000 to help small businesses and certain not-for-profit childcare centers start up and expand. The average microloan is about $13,000 to assist small businesses.

Learn more from our loan experts at Chelsea State Bank – contact our Business Loan Officers today!