Multiple Location operation |
Thinking of expanding?
If you have a successful business, you may be tempted to expand into more than one location because of internal pressure or because you are offered other business opportunities. This kind of business development should be conceived and planned extremely carefully because it has an extremely high failure rate attached to it.
The skills and management systems needed to manage one location are very different from those needed to oversee multiple locations. You can’t be in two places at once. You need to start preparing for expansion into another location at least two years ahead, and you need to develop the core of a second management team before you try to make the move.
The standard test to see if you are ready to operate in another location is to go on holiday for two months. If you can’t take holidays or you return to serious problems then you are definitely not ready to remove yourself from your existing business and oversee another. The mark of a good manager is not what happens while they are there, it’s what happens while they are away. In your absence, your business should run like a well oiled machine.
Eldred Hospitality's principal, Tony Eldred, was trained in multiple location management by the experts — the fast food industry. We can help you prepare to make the move, develop the necessary key staff, set-up the control systems, choose a second location and prepare it for action. We can then support and coach you in multiple location management techniques while you find your feet.
Further reading from our library:
Going from a small business to a company
Stepping
away from your business
On
putting your business under management
The
rules for business structure
