What it takes to grow beyond wishing it

Arriving in a new market is not trying to selling your product out of the blue, even if you believe in that.

Before doing this, you must create a structure, ?you need to have a marketing/communications plan, a (comprehensive) service approach, values, a team, facilities, the right product, etc.

Use these and other tools to build your BRAND. Because, no BRAND, no anything. Aim to have it, to spread it, and to create its awareness.

Nothing of this can happen without investment.

I see companies building and investing in their company/brand: facilities, team, marketing, (holy) service, etc. even knowing that the break even is not in the next week calendar.

The way.

I see other companies willing to invest zero, and believe in God’s will to sell bikes. Nothing else.

For the first type of company, every market is an opportunity.

For the latter, the situation, the currency exchange rates, big competitors, the weather, inflation, shipment disruption, China dumping, and the result of the football Euro Cup 2024 exert a double-sized negative effect on them than on the rest of the world.

Companies with a growing wish and instinct are something praisable and good. Sure.

For this, you need to know your capabilities, and product positioning and set reasonable goals according to this all.

Wishing is essential, but not enough.

By the way, thinking of your company expansion is a solution to poor financial output in the same way that having one more kid is a way to save your marriage.

You must consolidate your company before making it grow or trying to. Once your operations, supply, brand perception, reached client volume, service, sales, and financial health are a reality, you could be (more) ambitious.

One more concern comes from the fact of trying to grow by including new product categories before maximizing your current portfolio output. In other words, if you are struggling to sell your bikes, including tires, racks, or clothing your offer will not help. Yes, up-selling and cross-selling are brilliant ideas once your core activity goes moderately well. ?

I commonly see people willing to face a market trying to recruit talent for free under the disguise of “synergy”. The idea spins around starting to sell using someone else’s agenda and resources as assets. A “we will see” is the next step.

The thing is right the other way around. You do not wait for your son to grow on his own and feed him when a teenager. You must feed him from day one so that he can grow. Then, he willl start shaking his wings. Swap him for her and he for she to obtain the same result.

Sometimes, a company has been succeeding in its country and this pushes the management to think that conquering a new market will be a breeze because your products and brand have been populated where you live, be it locally or nationally all over the past years.

This will not grant you success where you are nobody and where others have been doing well for decades.

Keeping your company within its own natural limits is already a triumph. Keeping it stable, and healthy, having a happy team, a positive market consideration, an impeccable reputation, and/or not ruining your father’s legacy should be enough.

Thinking of invading a new territory with no resources, no reason, and trying to bring talent at a low cost/for free under the disguise of an “interesting sopportunity" says clearly about your wrong understanding of what’s all about.

Remember, succeeding does not necessarily imply growth. And no pain, no gain what equals that if you do not invest, you will not..., well that is enough, you will not, generally speaking.

If your idea is good enough, maybe being acquired could boost it, a completely different story.