SME'S explore a variety of strategies to give their business an edge in the market

According to a recent survey, 26% of small and medium-sized businesses are exploring a variety of strategies
to give themselves a competitive edge in the market.

In this article we take a look at 8 ways you can grow your business by entering new markets or selling new products and services.

1. Collaborate
Collaboration is a way of bringing the skills and experience of your business together with those of another complementary business that has a similar customer base to yours.

By joining forces with a similar business to yours, you can raise awareness of your brand with customers in your target market that might never have heard of you. Same with your collaborator.

2. Open a new location
If you’ve already established a successful business in one location, one option for expansion is to set up another of it elsewhere.

You may need to nominate a management consultant or an auditor to manage your company in your absence.

And it depends on your agreement, the two of you can successfully operate the business via correspondence provided you keep your part of the agreement.

3. Franchise your business
Another option for anyone with a proven business model is franchising.

Your franchisee takes on the risk of setting up in a different location, but you still have to put in the hard work to manage your franchises and it needs to be a business model that can work in multiple locations.

If you are confused, just take time to study other popular franchises that you see scattered all over Nigeria.

Good examples include: KFC, Dominos, Coldstone, Mr. Biggs, etc. 

4. License a product
You may have a fantastic business idea, but if you’ve reached your limit for producing your product on a large scale, one option available is to license it.

This is where another company takes over the responsibility for producing and distributing the product, but they take the lion’s share of the profits and pay you royalties.

This isn’t for every company, but some entrepreneurs have made successful businesses from licensing such things as designs, games and software, leaving them more time to come up with new products.

5. Sell complementary products or services
If people are already buying from you, could you potentially increase the cost of their purchases and improve customer loyalty by offering them something else they might need.

This could involve selling a related product or service from a third party, which you make commission on, or you could put your skills to use producing something that fills a gap in your market.

Pharmacies and supermarkets use this strategy to sell magazines. A good example is Medplus.

6. Enter new markets
This could be selling in a new area, a new country or to a completely different type of customer. Whichever new market you choose to enter, one thing is for sure – you must do your research first!

Don’t expect that they will behave just the same as customers in your existing markets. Understand their wants and needs and then develop a relevant product or service that satisfies these.

7. Public procurement
With government targets to award 25% of small public-sector contracts to small and medium-sized businesses, there has never been a better time to explore the opportunities available to you in this new market.

8. Exporting
Nigeria exports increased in the 3rd quarter of 2017 and many businesses have got in on the act as the demand for Nigerian products improved overseas.