Business Expansion – Part 1

As Michelle and I visited so many cities this year for The Simple Plan workshops, one question re-occurred time and time again:  “How do you expand your business into another market?”  It’s a simple question with a very complex answer, and one that I’m very familiar with since I made the decision to expand my Wedding and Event Planning company, Sweet Pea Events into a new market over a year and a half ago.  We now have offices in both Seattle and Dallas, so over the next few days I’m going to be sharing my experience with you – to help give you some insight and also provide you with things to consider before expanding your business into another market.  I’m breaking this into 3 phases of how I expanded my own business:  today I’m going to review the “Research and Dream” phase, Wednesday will be the “Plan and Execute” phase, and we’ll wrap-up Thursday with the “Review and Refine” phase.

So, first things first…when my husband and I first considered moving to Dallas, I needed to do my research.  Not just a little bit of research, but a TON of it.   And, of course I needed to dream about what this new branch of my business could look and feel like! So I spent the course of a few months trying to find answers to questions like:

• How many weddings take place in the Dallas – Fort Worth area?
• What is the average wedding budget, average guest count, etc.?
• What is the going rate for wedding planning services, and especially what price range will the market bear?
• How has the economic downturn impacted the wedding market in Dallas (keep in mind we moved in October 2008 when the big bad “E” word was announced!
• Is Fort Worth the same market or a different market as Dallas?  Everyone refers to it as “DFW” so you might assume like I did that Dallas was the same as Fort Worth, right? (Wrong, but we’ll get to that later!)
• How am I going to find brides that are in my target market?
• What are the advertising mediums available?
• What is the competitive landscape?  Is the market saturated or is there room for another Planner?
• Does any other Planner have the same or similar niche as me? If so, am I willing (and able) to create a new niche?
• What is the culture like in Dallas and how is my company going to fit in?
• What kinds of business licenses do I need in Texas, and will my Washington State LLC also apply to business I do in Texas?
• How am I going to “hit the pavement” and establish myself yet again, but this time in a brand new city?
• What am I going to do with Sweet Pea Events in Seattle that I’ve built up over the last several years?
• Is my current business plan for the Seattle market going to easily transfer over to the Dallas market or will I need to re-write a whole new plan and define new strategies? (answer is yes, I needed to re-write a new plan…more to come on that tomorrow!)

All this to say, these were just a few of the many, many questions I had to ask and find the answers to before even beginning to plan and execute this expansion.  If you’re considering expanding into a new market, even if it’s a different part of your state, these are just some of the questions I would recommend starting to research.

You may also be wondering, where in the world do you find this information when you don’t currently live in the state and have nver done business there? Here are a few ideas and ways that I found my info:

1. The Wedding Report – this resource is chalk-full of reliable information in general about the wedding industry, and the great part is that you can drill-down and purchase state and city specific information.

2.  Local Wedding Pros – seek out local wedding professionals in the market you’re considering expanding to, and ask them if they’d be willing to chat for 10 minutes or answer a few questions via email so you can learn first-hand from them what it’s like to work in that market…and at the same time you can also hopefully learn a bit about your competitive landscape.  Now, keep in mind you won’t likely hear back from alot of people, but there will hopefully be at least a few who are willing to help you out!

3.  Local Advertising Mediums – a great way to learn about a market is to pick up all of the local bridal mags, track down the most popular local online wedding magazines and blogs…and ask them what their distribution and reach is like, what is the demographic of their brides, etc.  You are a potential advertiser and they should definitely be able to tell you this information!

4.  Site Visits – this is by far the most beneficial way you can learn about the market you’re considering.  There is nothing that can replace an actual physical visit to experience what the culture is like, to learn where the most popular wedding venues are, to understand what the local trends are, to survey local wedding pros and begin relationship building, and to understand how the local market perceives Wedding Planners and the value brides place on our services.

Does this have your wheels turning yet?  I know, there’s lots to think about huh?! So, be sure to check back tomorrow to learn some of my strategies for the “Planning and Executing” phase of expanding a biz!