Brand Consulting Laconia NH

Figuring out how to position your startup business in exactly the right market segment was accomplishment enough. Your new business has done well and grown, confirming all the hard analysis you did in the first place.

Now, it might be time for you to follow up that performance with an encore by considering expansion for your business into an additional product or service segment, a new demographic slice of the marketplace, or even a brand extension or a second brand altogether.

You’ll have to do a lot of analysis again to figure out whether your balance sheet, your startup’s infrastructure, your own executive time and other factors would allow you to make such a leap at the moment.

Follow the path of least resistance

The most sensible option for diversification is usually to move your business into a segment or a market that’s clearly adjacent to what you’re already doing.

That might simply involve finding other groups of customers who might buy the same thing. “The more you can make the new niche markets like your original, the easier it will be for you to relate to them and convince them that you are eminently qualified to serve them,” says Larry Mersereau, a Valparaiso, Ind.-based sales and marketing consultant.

Cathi Coan did just that when she realized that there were tons of consumer equipment going into landfills, in addition to the corporate computer waste that is recycled and destroyed by Techway Services Inc., her company based in Grapevine, Texas. So ...

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