Scale up suggestions

[Brian61]

Hello,I'm a new member and need some advice.I have a cleaning business and can expand.The problem is they would be in other markets 100-200 miles away. I could pay 85 a day for 3 hours work 5 days per week.How do I hire someone else in another city. Do I hire them then find the work since I would have to build that market?Or find the work first and promise The customer that could start in a month or two till I find enough work to hire somebody. Not sure what to do or if it's possible.Any advice?

[Freelancier]

How much work do you have in another city? How much money do you have to support your expansion before you start to feel the lack of sales? Could you hire a manager/salesperson in the other city and put them in charge of the staff and selling in that territory for a percentage of the income from that city? What's your analysis of this other market's competition?

[Brian61]

Thanks for replying.I have a couple of accounts I could get right away buts that's not enough to hire somebody,not much competition for what I do,only 1 or 2 others in each state.I really don't want to use my own money to support someone until I get enough accounts.The manager/salesperson sounds interesting but I'm afraid it would cost a lot of money in the short run.I haven't been in this situation before so a little apprehensive about it.

[Freelancier]

I totally get what you're saying, committing like that is a risk and you're either ready for the risk or you're not. If you're not ready financially for that risk and you're not prepared to commit the extra time to make it work, then pass on the business for now and when you're ready, those customers will come back around again.

[Harold Mansfield]

I really don't want to use my own money to support someone until I get enough accounts.

Then you aren't ready. If you were ready you'd have the confidence to invest in it.

[Brian61]

I agree I'm on the fence right now. I may just have to go forward and see what happens.

[Freelancier]

I may just have to go forward and see what happens.Start with: what's your plan to manage the people who are distant? How will you gain more business in that area so that it's worth hiring a manager to oversee everything in that location? The reality is that it's 2-4 hours before you can get there to handle a problem. And then 2-4 hours driving back. On top of the work you're doing in the local market where you are now.

[bjay99]

Are you ready to be away from your primary market for the majority of the time? At this point, your operations is running smoothly, you don't care about day to day stuff anymore. If so,then you are ready.

You should be able to dedicate more time to the new market - growing the brand, gaining customers, and building a team. It's like growing a 2nd business.

[JR Strack]

I have a cleaning business and can expand.The problem is they would be in other markets 100-200 miles away. I could pay 85 a day for 3 hours work 5 days per week.

Your Answer is in your question.

You can pay someone else $425 dollars a week and handle the work, or you can undertake that cost and time commitment to handle the account(s) yourself.

If you are looking to expand I can assume you are not the only employee to your current client base, and if you are how difficult would it be to hire someone locally to handle your current clients while you go build your client foundation? Once you have a solid relationship built you can hire someone on to train in that location as a manager and expand your company on your behalf.

Is this new location one in which you would stand to gain more business and further your company name, or is it limited to certain business models?

Just a few questions to think about.

[Brian61]

I could hire someone for my local market or at least half of it while I'm building the other. That's about the only way I see to do it,cost wise.The business is semi limited model.Time to grow this second buisness.

[0maha]

Sounds like a risky move from here.

Managing someone remotely is extremely tough. You're talking about trusting someone to handle your accounts, do quality work, manage complaints, and most important, represent your brand name all from a distance. Very hard to do unless you find the perfect employee.

Is your current business stable enough to survive without you day to day for 90 to 180 days? If so, then my thought is to travel to the proposed new city, set yourself up in a temporary apartment, and spend every waking moment knocking on doors to build a base of business while simultaneously working on recruiting someone to be your manager after the initial startup period. You should expect to have to feed this new location for at least those first six months (probably longer) until you get a critical mass of clients and the money starts flowing.

Even if you make that investment in time and money, you are still looking at an enormous increase in overall grief level to manage a remote location.

Unless you are certain that either (a) there is simply no growth to be found in your current location or (b) the proposed location is a pot of gold, I'd put my efforts into expanding in the current location.

[checkmate]

Before I do any hiring or serious investment in a city that far away, I would test the market first.

Run a small marketing campaign to see what kind of interest you can get. Call is something like a "Grand Opening Special". See how many quality leads you can generate first.

I am not sure how many accounts you would need or what your conversation rates are, but if you can build a permission-based lead list with enough contacts to get into profit within a reasonable time frame, then I say its worth looking into expansion there.

[Alex - Arvixe]

I wouldn't go around 'We promise to come back in a month or 2' as that doesn't really leave a good first impression. And what will happen if the first few are happy to proceed and have been promised work beginning in 1 - 2 months but not enough to cover your employee? Will you drop those promises?

I agree with @checkmate. Run some type of campaign just to see if there is any demand. Don't promise anything though as I assume you're not 100% sure about expanding or not - otherwise you wouldn't have made this thread :).

[Brian61]

Limited to a niche market so I would be looking to expand what I do but in a different market.

[Brian61]

Exactly. First impressions are key. Maybe a little market research is in order before I proceed.Thanks