Turner Little explains how to expand a small business without affecting profits

A major challenge for SMEs concerns how to expand, protect profits and grow in a sustainable way, particularly during unpredictable economic times.

It’s common for start-ups to work in more creative ways than bigger businesses, in order to tackle the challenges facing them. This ‘thinking out of the box’ employee-centric strategy has been so effective for start-ups and SMEs that it is now being implemented by much larger, more established companies.

At Turner Little, we work with start-ups and entrepreneurs on every aspect of setting up, effectively financing and expanding businesses. Our experience has shown that there are three main areas to focus on if you want to increase your company’s profitability:

1. Find a creative solution for office space

To ensure a business grows in a sustainable and cost-effective way, it’s a good plan to look for alternative office options. For small businesses, there is always a balance to find between the office space you pay for and the number of employees you need.

For growing businesses, expansion is inevitable, and this must be seen as an investment. Expanding your office space can give the following benefits:

• Expanding client base by improving accessibility.
• Attractive more diverse employees to the company.
• Create a more sustainable infrastructure allowing for growth.

It can be risky to expand the office space for a growing business, but there are sensible ways to do it. These include considering flexible and shared office space or finding a satellite office. SMEs often benefit from flexible office spaces to help them scale their business up, as they often come with flexible, versatile and shorter leases.

Shared office space with other companies is no longer the domain of forward-thinking start-ups. Companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Barclays have all implemented similar co-working spaces to benefit from a collaborative working environment.

Finding and attracting talented employees is one of the most challenging issues that small companies face when they want to drive innovation and growth. By expanding into other regions of the country, a company can widen the talent from which they can attract employees.

2. Use appropriate collaborative tools

SMEs can also save money on the cost of desks by considering a flexible working system. This can include working from home or working flexible hours, in order to increase productivity and save expenditure.

Another practice popular with start-ups, this kind of flexible working is also being adopted by large corporations. Flexible working systems benefit the company and staff as they can fit their work around family commitments.

3. Work to fully engage employees

Staff motivation is vital not only for increased performance and productivity, but also for creativity and innovation. To effectively engage and motivate your workforce you must:

• Understand what motivates employees.
• Ensure positive feedback is front and centre, as it encourages performance, motivation and engagement.
• Identify development and training needs to help employees reach their full potential.

A popular and well-established way to increase employee engagement is to offer focused perks. These range from free fruit, lunches or nights out to ‘duvet days’ and gym membership. These perks don’t have to cost much, but they must be considered high value by your employees.

There is no one way to approach employee engagement, and every business must create a clear strategy. Any strategy for growth must be flexible and adaptable to the market sector and the kinds of employees that are wanted.

About Turner Little

Founded in 1998 in Yorkshire, UK, Turner Little is a specialist UK and offshore company formation, banking and corporate services provider. Our services include company formation, UK and offshore banking, asset protection, credit correction/repair, trademarking and trusts. Other services include Internet services, mail forwarding, wills and probate. Turner Little’s vision is to offer the best possible service, together with market leading products.