Expand Services Or Create Services?

Which are you?

Are  you the antique red telephone booth? Or are you the blur of progress?

Grow or Die

Expansion of services is the hallmark of most successful businesses.  "Grow or die" is the common mantra of many businesses.  I too believe it's a good goal to have. Existing services and products become stale with time and the attractiveness of them diminishes, resulting in a slow, but progressive, death of a business if it is not constantly evolving. 

Expand or Create?

Part of a businesses growth is the development of new and (hopefully) exciting new services or products.  But with this development, there comes a new development that may be unanticipated.  A fork in the road of growth, and one that provides new and unanticipated challenges.  That decision point has at least two very different trajectories. Do you expand your services or products?  Or do you create new services or products?

Expansion

Expansion of your services and products may come naturally and seem relatively easy.  It is a good system for keeping your existing products and services in a "new" or "improved" light. But fundamentally they are your core products with new spins.  It's the newest haircut or style.  An improved car maintenance program.  A new twist on the free checking account.  Updating a rotary phone to a push button phone. A new flavor variation on breakfast cereal.  All fundamentally the same as the original product or service, but with a new minor change to allow you to claim it's new or improved.

The downside of this approach is that it's not likely to pull in a lot of new customers.  Because the core product hasn't changed, there is little compelling reason for a non-customer to become a customer.  You may gain a few new customers, but it's also as likely that you will lose some customers.  Net gain: Zero.

Creation

On the other hand, the other fork in that road can provide you with more radical choices.  Rather than looking at product you are creating, you can look at the resources that you have and determine what different products or services can be created with those resources. Resources may mean physical production abilities that you have, but it can also mean your knowledge bank, your financial bank or a list of your existing customers and leads.  Look at all of your existing resources.

This too can have it's own fork in the road.  Do you create a new product or service that will make your existing offering obsolete?  Or do you create a new product or service that is entirely different and challenges other companies products or services?

Both are viable options and which you choose is entirely up to you.  That decision depends on your interest, your resources and your tolerance for risk.  Creating a new product in a different industry can be a good choice if you want to fully diversify and have the necessary resources to achieve it. 

Creating a new product or service that will make your old business product(s) obsolete should be on your radar at all times.  That is what your competition is trying to do.  If and when they succeed, your existing business is at grave risk.  By you working to be the one to create a product or service that makes your existing items obsolete, you stay ahead of the curve, and your competition will constantly be playing catch up, rather than innovating (think Apple products). It's not a question of if your product or service will/can be replaced, it's more likely a question of when and by whom.

What will you do to advance your company into the future?

Will you innovate and create, or expand?

More importantly: Which approach is most likely to make you successful in the future?