Deciding if and when to expand a company is not an easy task.
If the partners disagree, it also adds to the tension, especially if they are married.
For Chris and Emily Elias, it was a debate about whether to expand their existing mobile dog grooming company, The Ruff Life, based in Massapequa, New York, to other cities or offer a local stationary location that they had on a standstill.
“If you look at this nationwide, you speak of hundreds of millions [of dollars in sales]”, Said the 37-year-old Chris Elias in the” Money Court “of CNBC.
The company is on track to generate $ 1.4 million in revenue this year, he noted.
However, his wife believes there is more money to be made on site.
“We know our customers already love us. I know the demand is there. National is not the way to go,” said Emily Elias.
Chris and Emily Elias, who own a mobile dog grooming company in Massapequa, New York, have discussed how to expand their business.
Emily and Chris Elias
It’s not uncommon for partners to be at odds over the next step for their business, or even whether to expand, said Barry Moltz, a small business expert who previously owned his own business and is now a consultant.
“The key to success is not to make fatal mistakes that ruin your business,” he said.
That said, don’t invest more money than you can afford to lose, especially when testing new concepts, Moltz explained.
Before deciding to expand, make sure you have some extra profit or cash to invest in the business. The Eliases, for example, have $ 100,000 to invest in their expansion.
It is also important to find out your “why”. It could be a bigger profit, an opportunity to diversify or, for example, to grow bigger to sell the business, said Moltz, who has worked with married partners who disagreed over expansion plans.
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Then figure out how to test the growth strategy without going all in and decide if you should be testing more than one thing at a time.
“You want to dip your toe and see what works and what doesn’t,” said Moltz.
Evaluate the results and from there either double up on a strategy that worked or find out something else if the results have been poor.
As the Eliases were already successful on site, the chairman of the “Money Court”, Kevin O’Leary, the chairman of the O’Shares ETFs decided that the couple should expand by using more mobile vans in their current area. He also asked them to come up with a business plan for a possible stationary location.
The couple are now pushing the purchase of two more vans and are happy with O’Leary’s decision, they recently told CNBC.
“There are millions of pets here,” said Chris, who now realizes that it makes more sense to expand locally than nationally. “The money is there, the demand is there.
“The sky is the limit.”
You still have to create a business plan for a stationary location. In fact, Emily isn’t sure this will bring her future.
Once they saturate the cellular market, they will try to expand the services they offer – be it a fixed location or some other mobile service like a fitness center, dog training or dog sitting.
“You have to offer more services,” said Emily. “The business is there, our customers are there, the money is there.”
TURN ON: CNBC’s “Money Court,” starring Kevin O’Leary, will air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET.
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Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns.
