When is it time to open another business location?

Let’s say you have a successful small business — healthy sales, lots of customers, a good amount of profit, the whole nine yards. How do you know when it’s time to expand and open another location? 

There are a ton of potential benefits to opening a new location. You could gain access to new customers and a larger employee hiring pool. You could grow your brand recognition. If you need to order more products from your suppliers, you could even negotiate discounts.

But there are also many risks. For one thing, accounting becomes more of a headache with two locations. Your new location could also cannibalize the older one. Many small business experts recommend finding outside sources of funding for a second location so that you don’t take too much away from your original location.

Then, there’s you, the owner. Are you essential to your business’s day-to-day operations, or can you step away for a good amount of time to open a new location?

Fundera created a flowchart to use when deciding whether to open a new location. Check it out.

Please include attribution to fundera.com with this graphic.