For your business to be on a global scale, you may have to consider scaling. Scalability is basically about capacity and capability – either as market expansion or product expansion. It means setting the stage to enable and support growth for your company.
In this piece we would be considering market expansion across Africa for startups. It is unfortunate that scaling a business on the continent has been a challenge for a very long time, but the narrative is changing. Since scaling may implies you would sell more, you obviously need to reach out to new market to achieve this.
To expand into new market, a startup company should have at least dominate its local market. While some startups can scale form day one, other need time to go deep in one market before moving out. To successfully scale a business is all about doing the fundamentals and having the endurance and stamina to see it through.
When businesses want to expand their customer base, expanding into new markets gives them the chance to connect with different target audiences who can benefit from their new products or services and existing product lines. Scaling can also be a response the changing needs of the customers. Businesses can expand to meet these needs.
Things to consider when trying to Scale your business
As earlier mentioned, scaling a business into new market within the continent is getting better by the day. There are measure that are been put in place by young African to help ease doing business across board. Some points to note when trying to expand into new African market are;
Good Understanding of the competition.
You may be doing very well in your local market – but the strategies reqiured for scaling a business is what differentiates a small business, a startup and a profitable organisation.
Competition in the world of business today is tough, entrepreneurs must employ every means they can to succeed. When going to market, and you’re really looking to get your offer to the masses, you need to research the competition. You need to understand the competition that exist in the new market you are about to enter. For instance, the policies that favour doing business is not the some everywhere in Africa. These policies influence the economic landscape of our regions differently. Hence, making it really difficult for startups to expand into new markets in different locations.
Networking and Collaboration
Scaling into new market can be really challenging – this cannot be over emphasized. As such, leveraging on strategic collaborations and partnerships can make the whole alot less exhausting. Startups that aim to expand into these new market may not have to go through the stress, they could lean on collaborations or partnerships with innovation hubs, cooperates etc. These ease the scaling processes such as registrations, talent search, working space etc. You need to build a network of collaborations with people and organizations. Also, seek for opportunities to network – conferences, seminars, business trips, vacations etc. These events are not just to go to learn they can really serve as means to network and build professional relationships that can help your business to expand. Strategic partnerships with the right companies can truly make a world of difference. It can afford the opportunity to reach more customers quickly. Finding these partnerships is easier said than do, but when you do, it makes a whole lot of difference.
Leverage online platforms.
This may sound like collaboration and partnership, but its not. There are companies out there that have seen this challenge that startups face and have taken it upon themselves to ease business scaling within the continent. One of such platforms is Norebase, a single digital infrastructure for businesses to start, scale and operate in any African country. We another called sidebrief. When you are ready to scale across Africa, you can visit a them to make your process faster and much easier.
Conclusively, scaling a business is a serious steps that requires alot decision making and hard choices. But you can take advantage of these channels mentioned above to expand to diiferent location in Africa.
