It’s more than mood music that will tell you your business is ready to expand

In the current climate it might seem ill-timed to deliberate whether your business is ready for expansion. But while at GSM we are ever-prudent, we're also ever-planning for growth on behalf of our clients. So even if the economy is not ready for growth, many businesses are deserving of it and it will be more than mood music telling us so.

Understanding the financial health of the company is an essential first step to creating a successful growth strategy. If a company is performing weakly in too many areas, for all your commercial efforts, a premature attempt to expand can ultimately cause the business to collapse.

Your business might have added to or innovated in its product or service offering and now aims to increase market share, to grow its customer base and ultimately to increase its profitability. However, being equipped to tackle the financial and operational challenges that accompany any expansion is vital. It requires thorough financial analysis to gauge feasibility and at the very least to ascertain if cash flow is sufficient.

Additionally, assessing whether your business model, operational capacity and current systems are scalable is crucial to ensure your readiness for increased production or service delivery demands. Evaluating these will highlight the availability of resources that can be allocated, mitigate potential bottlenecks and set the stage for prolonged growth.

Equally significant is the guidance and tools provided by your accountant to enable you to adjust expansion plans to navigate market fluctuations.

Similarly, your preparedness for technological advancements, such as AI and demand for sustainable development, for example, all create challenges, as well as opportunities, for future expansion.

Measuring growth to-date will also provide valuable insights into your readiness for expansion.

As well as looking at overall sales and turnover, recent growth as it impacts on a company's long term prospects should be reviewed. From growth in revenue to growth in profits. From growth in market share to growth in customer retention. All are indicative that things are going in the right direction.

What's unlikely to be on the right trajectory is growth in costs, growth in debt, growth in the competition and so on, which may be impacting on the company's profitability. In short, profitability and growth go hand-in-hand when it comes to success.

Our role at GSM is to plan smartly, to consider the quality of these metrics, along with your company's financial infrastructure, the integrity of the company's financial reporting, the ease with which transactions are conducted and management decisions taken.

Such best practice accountancy can contribute to your company's growth not only in providing confidence for potential expansion, but also in ensuring all financial obligations are allowed for.

So, whatever the challenges facing your business when contemplating expansion, with GSM accompanying you, your plans for growth will be that much more in tune with your ambitions. To hear more contact us today on 0207 935 3793.