Has your business reached the point where your customers' demands and your current supply aren’t matching up, or you find yourself constantly neck-and-neck with the competition? Those sound like your typical growing pains.

Every business reaches a point where growth through expansion is inevitable, but remaining stable while expanding business operations requires a little extra footwork.

What does a growing business need?

You’ll hear plenty of talk about developing a solid business expansion plan, but what does that look like? There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to expanding business operations, but there are a few bases you’ll want to cover.

Do some digging

There are four areas of your current operations to explore when you get started on your business expansion plan.

• Market research

  Analyze your market, competitors, and customers — does your market research favor the timing and scope of your next venture?

• Available capital

  What about capital from excess reserves, owner contributions, or credit financing — do you have what you need to fund this expansion?

• Staff & organizational structure

  Consider your current staff. How many new folks will you need to hire? Would you need to restructure on an organizational level to support the changes you want to make?

• Partnerships & vendor relationships

  How could future ventures impact current partnerships and vendor relationships? Plan for adjustments where needed.

Know your pros and cons

Now that you’ve got your head around the market and your internal affairs in order, it’s time to do a bit of soul-searching. Expanding your business operations is a big deal, you’ll want to make sure it’s the right move.

Here are a few pros and cons to consider:

Get the wheels turning

You’ve got your mind set on expansion, and now it’s time to start thinking about what that really looks like for your business. There are three approaches you can take with this:

• Grow Market Share.

  You can increase your company’s share by offering new technology, customer loyalty programs, advertising programs, nurturing your team’s skill sets, or even acquisitions. Heck, you can combine as many of those as you see fit.

• New Product Development (PD).

  Maybe it’s just modifying or improving an existing product, or maybe it’s introducing something entirely new. Either way, improvements are necessary to maintain your competitive advantage.

• New Market Introduction.

  New territory brings fresh opportunities to learn and grow. Just make sure to do your research on the market and get that strategy in order before you step into the arena.

Grab your tools

When we feel good, we look good – that applies to business, too.

Cash management is key to healthy growth. There are business solutions designed to help you optimize available funds, maximize interest income, and make getting paid and making payments a breeze.

The more aspects of your business you can automate, the better you feel, and the more professional you look. A win-win on the path to success.

What are the risks of expanding a business?

Fear of new territories aside, there are a few risks you’ll want to keep an eye out for.

• Accidentally limiting the business’s ability to scale. As your company grows, having the ability to move funds quickly and make payments easily is vital. Take our Disbursement service for example – it makes moving funds and making payments a breeze.

• Letting your guard down. During times of expansion money is exchanging hands, and you want to make sure it’s the right ones. With a service like our Positive Pay solution, you can protect your business from Check and ACH fraud, or filter out and block certain transactions with the ACH Filter service. There are also solutions that allow you to create payment rules for ACH and Wire Origination that require multiple users to approve payments and collections.

• Getting lax with collections. When your business gets paid on time, so do employees and vendors. Our collections service makes collecting dues simple so you can reduce the risk of going unpaid, unnoticed.

• Having poor cash management. If you could optimize your available funds, why wouldn’t you? With our you can maximize your interest income, and put your money to work for you.

What are your loan options when expanding a business?

Now that you’re empowered with the knowledge above, you may find yourself wondering where the cash to support your growing business will come from. Well, we’ve got a few loan suggestions.

• SBA Loans. SBA loans are government-guaranteed funding options in partnership with the Small Business Administration, and there are two types of expansion financing with an SBA. Want to learn more? Get the scoop on how to get a small business loan.

• Equipment Loans. Just as it sounds, equipment loans are for all business-related equipment purchases. When you’re approved, you receive an initial lump sum advance to make the purchase, and then you pay it back with fixed principal and interest payments for up to 15-years.

• Working Line of Credit. Looking for a loan that can be used for a variety of purposes with immediate accessibility? The working line of credit offers you that with interest-only payments upon access. You also have the option of making it a revolving line of credit (LOC) if you’d like the same credit available again after you pay it down. If not, that’s an option, too.

• Term Loan. If you’re interested in using a loan for construction, a term loan allows you to draw for each phase of the project. Otherwise, you receive a lump sum initial advance, and terms can range from five to ten years. With amortization ranging from 15-25 years, there are some tax-related benefits to term loans as well.

Got a few questions? We can help you out with that. Just tap that chat bubble anytime between 8am-7pm CST, Monday-Friday.

How can I apply for a loan with nbkc?

Applying for a loan doesn’t have to be complicated. So, we keep it simple here at nbkc.

• You know your business better than anyone. Start by taking a look at our business loan options to see which feels right for you.

• Document requirements can vary from loan to loan, but in most cases, you can expect your lender to ask for the following upfront:

  • Basic Personal and Business Information
  • Personal Financial Statement
  • Two Years of your Business and Personal Tax Returns
  • Most recent Business Profit & Loss Statement
  • Business Debt Schedule
  • YTD Business Financial Statements (Balance Sheet and Income Statement)

If you’re unsure which loan is right for your business, our loan officers can guide the way.

Here’s what other business folks are saying.

It’s always good to see what fellow business owners have to say, so we asked a few.

Got more questions? We’ve got answers.

If you’re already a business account customer, you can reach out to one of our bankers and they’ll set up a meeting time where you can talk through all our Biz Services. Or, if you want to start by looking through some of our services, you can head to our Biz Services.