You can make a lot of money by opening a business. But if you can open three or four businesses? Then you’ve got the chance to enter the big leagues. If you’ve found success with your business, then becoming a multi-location business is an effective way to expand your operations and further solidify your brand.
But of course, if that was easy, then all business owners would do it. The fact is, opening a second or third location takes work, almost as much as setting up the initial business. Having multiple locations also makes things more difficult to manage, especially when you can’t be onsite every day. In this post, we’ll run through some handy tips that should make the task more straightforward.
Research Each New Location
You’ll find it much easier to manage a multi-location business if you’re not saddled with stress and worry. All too often, business owners elect to open an additional location without determining whether there’s a demand for their products/services in that area. Just because the business worked well in one location, that doesn’t mean that it’ll work well in another.
Remember that you should conduct thorough market research before opening any extra location, whether it’s your second or tenth. Previous success only hints that future success is possible; it does not guarantee it.
Talk to Experts
You’ll be legally set up for your existing business, but opening up multiple locations changes things, or at least it may do. If you’re opening a business in a separate state, then it’s recommended to speak to an expert — they’ll be able to guide you through the process of setting up your business in the area. You might also benefit from speaking to an attorney, to check whether the existing structure of your business is still correct now that you’re becoming a multi-location business.
This might not be the most exciting part of opening up new locations for your business, but it’s important — there’s nothing that will make managing your business more stressful than having problems with the law!
Find Consistency
Every location may be unique, but they also represent your brand. And in fact, what happens in one of your locations may impact another; a customer who has a bad experience in one of your stores is unlikely to become a customer in another one of your stores. To the customer, all of your locations are the same.
While it can be challenging, it’s best to strive to try to find as much consistency as possible. Standardizing your practices, such as what you do when a customer complains, is key for delivering a consistent level of service across all of your locations.
Get the Right Software
Technology is useful for all businesses, but it seems especially beneficial to multiple-location businesses. After all, you can’t be everywhere all at once — but the technology you incorporate can be. More than anything, using the right software will simply make things easier to manage, allowing you to have a better grip on the many different responsibilities you’ll now have as a multi-location business. Having POS software that connects the accounts of all your locations will make it easier to manage the financial side of your business, while cloud based door access control will allow you to control access to all of your locations from one handy portal. Using inventory control software is also recommended since it’ll ensure all the locations receive the right products.
Invest in Your Managers
You can’t be at all places at once, so it’s important to have people in place that you can trust will do a great job. Your managers will play a hugely influential role in determining the overall success of your multi-location business, so it’s important to, first, choose the right person for the job, and two, invest in their skills. If possible, it’ll be best to promote someone who has been working for your business in one of your locations to manage the new location.
Treat Every Location As Individual
Finally, while all locations will be grouped under your overall business, it’s important to also treat them as individual operations, at least from time to time. By analyzing the metrics of each location, including which items are selling/not selling and profitability, you’ll know which of your locations requires more attention and at which times. It’s normal for some locations to go through difficult times, too, so at some point you may decide to close one location and focus on your existing ones.
