hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to the
tune of ask Evan today mention a
question from one of our newsletter
readers Alister who wrote in saying hi I
haven’t just a quick question you have
any examples when would be the best time
to expand the business my situation is I
bought an existing business was quite
successful for a small town but the
previous owner lost my spot here did not
want to expand I have four years until
loans are paid off but I’m Connie in the
neutral zone it’s a sign business with a
good customer base but I now have some
local competition so I’m wondering if I
should be pushing and going more risky
forward or wait until depths debts are
paid off and then expand alliston lists
there ok so thanks for the question
great question uh so my thoughts here I
always like testing things and trying to
make money before them spending money so
especially if you’re in debt obviously
you want to try to pay off your debt
before you spend a huge amount of money
on a risky venture but I don’t like
being too risky as an entrepreneur and I
think you have an opportunity here to
look at potential expansion projects I
don’t know what you have in mind to
expand the business so you had you know
three or five big ideas to be able to
try to expand your business try to pick
your top three three different ways and
I try to find a way to get it started
without spending money as much as
possible on a small scale without
spending money look at how you might be
able to grow your business in each of
those lines and it’ll be it’ll be small
right it’s not the big vision that you
had but I’d also don’t want I don’t want
to see you risk your business and go
into something where you’re going to
lose a lot of money and not you don’t
get the returns that you’re looking for
and potentially have to close down it’s
kind of a worst-case scenario no you
don’t want to have the banks come and
take your business away or your home or
you know worse but I also don’t want to
just see you sit by and I’ll do anything
you know you have competition coming in
and status quo is not a good business
strategy right you can only do that for
so long before your business is taken
away from you by your competition and
market changes so you always have to be
you always have to be finding ways to
expanding and jump on a new curve and
look at ways of doing things better and
bringing in more customers and creating
a better experience so that’s also one
of the fun things of being entrepreneurs
is going through those things and coming
up with new ideas and thinking of ways
to expand but i wouldn’t say be safe you
know wait until four years before you
try to expand maybe that’s the advice
you get from your banker but I don’t
think that’s a great strategy I don’t
think that puts your business in the
best position possible because for years
from now your competition may be way
ahead of you and they may be eating your
lunch they may see a market opportunity
where you know you’ve just been doing
the same thing over and over again and
they’re growing and topping new markets
that you haven’t be able to get into
because he played it too safe but again
at the same time I don’t want you to
risk everything go crazy and lose your
business so I would try to find the
three ways that look at expanding my
business whatever ideas you have in mind
and start something on a small scale and
invest your time and your energy into
trying to make those things work even on
a small scale if you can show that you
can get a little bit of return on a
small scale then it’s worth expanding
you know your three ideas you may find
that one is a lot better than the others
and that’s great you know at the start
you never know you have great ideas you
have great projections but you really
never know which one’s going to work out
it sounds great in theory but you’re not
sure until you get into it if it’s going
to work or not so start on three things
test it really small put your time into
it see if you can get some results if
you can find that people are hooking
into it and are picking up on it and
they’re coming in and they’re buying
from you again even on a small scale
that’s worth expanding and when you
expand again you’re starting small when
you’re starting to put money in you
don’t go plowing a whole bunch of money
into the project you start on a small
scale again to make sure you’re not
making mistakes because chances are the
first dollar just bet they’re not going
to be spent perfectly you know you’re
going to make mistakes doing it and so
better than make your mistakes on a
small scale and it’s a great position of
being where you have a successful
business you’re you’re you know you’re
profitable you you have debt but you’re
slowly paying that back and so you have
a base to build on if you can situate
your company so that
you can spend most of your time not
running the business but looking at
growth opportunities as a child for a
lot of entrepreneurs is there so in
their business that they can’t spend the
time working on growing it but at least
have you know carve out some time for
you to focus on new projects to build
your business and you’re putting your
time in you’re making sure that it works
then you invest a little bit of money to
expand and then if that works then it’s
worth going for the bigger dollars and
may have to get a loan but I again just
try to go out and bootstrap it as much
as possible but you’ve shown that it
works right when you’re going to put big
money into it you’ve already shown that
by putting your time into it works am I
putting a little bit of money into it
works and so the risk is a lot lower I
don’t think you have to take massive
risk to be a successful entrepreneur you
just have to take small calculated risks
and continue to expand upon that so
hopefully that helps maybe not the
answer you’re looking for I’m a been
taking the middle road a little bit here
but I don’t think it’s the best strategy
to just wait for four years and I also
don’t want you to go crazy risky and
potentially lose your business so that’s
how we do it that’s how I’ve built all
my businesses is bootstrap small scale
invest your time show that it works and
then expand beyond that and it’s it’s a
great way to build a solid long-lasting
profitable business that you can enjoy
for a long time or sell at a great
premium to whoever wants to come in buy
it so hopefully that helps Alastair good
luck with the business for those of you
watching if you liked the video please
give a thumbs up makes me to do more of
these for you and if you have a comment
for Alastair or comment about this video
or a question for your own company feel
free to leave it in the section below I
always read those and I try to respond
as soon as i can and i’d love to try to
answer question for you guys as well so
thank you and i’ll see you on the next
episode
I
you
tune of ask Evan today mention a
question from one of our newsletter
readers Alister who wrote in saying hi I
haven’t just a quick question you have
any examples when would be the best time
to expand the business my situation is I
bought an existing business was quite
successful for a small town but the
previous owner lost my spot here did not
want to expand I have four years until
loans are paid off but I’m Connie in the
neutral zone it’s a sign business with a
good customer base but I now have some
local competition so I’m wondering if I
should be pushing and going more risky
forward or wait until depths debts are
paid off and then expand alliston lists
there ok so thanks for the question
great question uh so my thoughts here I
always like testing things and trying to
make money before them spending money so
especially if you’re in debt obviously
you want to try to pay off your debt
before you spend a huge amount of money
on a risky venture but I don’t like
being too risky as an entrepreneur and I
think you have an opportunity here to
look at potential expansion projects I
don’t know what you have in mind to
expand the business so you had you know
three or five big ideas to be able to
try to expand your business try to pick
your top three three different ways and
I try to find a way to get it started
without spending money as much as
possible on a small scale without
spending money look at how you might be
able to grow your business in each of
those lines and it’ll be it’ll be small
right it’s not the big vision that you
had but I’d also don’t want I don’t want
to see you risk your business and go
into something where you’re going to
lose a lot of money and not you don’t
get the returns that you’re looking for
and potentially have to close down it’s
kind of a worst-case scenario no you
don’t want to have the banks come and
take your business away or your home or
you know worse but I also don’t want to
just see you sit by and I’ll do anything
you know you have competition coming in
and status quo is not a good business
strategy right you can only do that for
so long before your business is taken
away from you by your competition and
market changes so you always have to be
you always have to be finding ways to
expanding and jump on a new curve and
look at ways of doing things better and
bringing in more customers and creating
a better experience so that’s also one
of the fun things of being entrepreneurs
is going through those things and coming
up with new ideas and thinking of ways
to expand but i wouldn’t say be safe you
know wait until four years before you
try to expand maybe that’s the advice
you get from your banker but I don’t
think that’s a great strategy I don’t
think that puts your business in the
best position possible because for years
from now your competition may be way
ahead of you and they may be eating your
lunch they may see a market opportunity
where you know you’ve just been doing
the same thing over and over again and
they’re growing and topping new markets
that you haven’t be able to get into
because he played it too safe but again
at the same time I don’t want you to
risk everything go crazy and lose your
business so I would try to find the
three ways that look at expanding my
business whatever ideas you have in mind
and start something on a small scale and
invest your time and your energy into
trying to make those things work even on
a small scale if you can show that you
can get a little bit of return on a
small scale then it’s worth expanding
you know your three ideas you may find
that one is a lot better than the others
and that’s great you know at the start
you never know you have great ideas you
have great projections but you really
never know which one’s going to work out
it sounds great in theory but you’re not
sure until you get into it if it’s going
to work or not so start on three things
test it really small put your time into
it see if you can get some results if
you can find that people are hooking
into it and are picking up on it and
they’re coming in and they’re buying
from you again even on a small scale
that’s worth expanding and when you
expand again you’re starting small when
you’re starting to put money in you
don’t go plowing a whole bunch of money
into the project you start on a small
scale again to make sure you’re not
making mistakes because chances are the
first dollar just bet they’re not going
to be spent perfectly you know you’re
going to make mistakes doing it and so
better than make your mistakes on a
small scale and it’s a great position of
being where you have a successful
business you’re you’re you know you’re
profitable you you have debt but you’re
slowly paying that back and so you have
a base to build on if you can situate
your company so that
you can spend most of your time not
running the business but looking at
growth opportunities as a child for a
lot of entrepreneurs is there so in
their business that they can’t spend the
time working on growing it but at least
have you know carve out some time for
you to focus on new projects to build
your business and you’re putting your
time in you’re making sure that it works
then you invest a little bit of money to
expand and then if that works then it’s
worth going for the bigger dollars and
may have to get a loan but I again just
try to go out and bootstrap it as much
as possible but you’ve shown that it
works right when you’re going to put big
money into it you’ve already shown that
by putting your time into it works am I
putting a little bit of money into it
works and so the risk is a lot lower I
don’t think you have to take massive
risk to be a successful entrepreneur you
just have to take small calculated risks
and continue to expand upon that so
hopefully that helps maybe not the
answer you’re looking for I’m a been
taking the middle road a little bit here
but I don’t think it’s the best strategy
to just wait for four years and I also
don’t want you to go crazy risky and
potentially lose your business so that’s
how we do it that’s how I’ve built all
my businesses is bootstrap small scale
invest your time show that it works and
then expand beyond that and it’s it’s a
great way to build a solid long-lasting
profitable business that you can enjoy
for a long time or sell at a great
premium to whoever wants to come in buy
it so hopefully that helps Alastair good
luck with the business for those of you
watching if you liked the video please
give a thumbs up makes me to do more of
these for you and if you have a comment
for Alastair or comment about this video
or a question for your own company feel
free to leave it in the section below I
always read those and I try to respond
as soon as i can and i’d love to try to
answer question for you guys as well so
thank you and i’ll see you on the next
episode
I
you
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