March 29, 2024

Growing Your Business

Expand It

Working with Florida Agencies

| 4/23/2015

If you aspire to be in the 50% of new businesses that do succeed beyond five years, it’s never too early to start thinking about the future.

You want your business to grow and prosper, right? Then you have to plan for it, and here are five key areas to consider:

Revisit your business plan. With your business plan in the flexible format recommended on the Plan It section, it will be easy to evaluate your goals. Have they changed? Do some sections need revision? Are your supporting documents in order? What new ideas/concepts/plans do you need to add?

Assess your operations. Are you operating as efficiently as you could be? How close are you to capacity? Do you need more space or larger facilities just to meet current capacity needs?

Evaluate your team. Do you have the right people working for you? Do you have a plan for attracting new personnel? Have you defined the duties, responsibilities, skills and experience needed for each position? In what areas of your business could you use more or better help? What types of training programs are you able to provide?

Grow your market. Are you reaching the right markets for your product or service? What markets are you missing and what plans do you have for reaching them? Is your marketing budget adequate? What promotional strategies are you using and are they effective?

Rate your financial situation. Have you reached your break-even point? What’s your cash flow situation? How much capital would it take for you to expand? Can you afford to do so?

No business can grow if it remains stagnant — doing the same old things, in the same old ways. Plan for change as you go by adopting new ideas and expanding into areas of operation you might not have previously considered, such as government contracting and exporting.

 

Selling to Florida

Working with State Agencies

Some small businesses may find it worthwhile to develop a marketing campaign specifically for state of Florida agencies.

MyFloridaMarketPlace, which is part of the Florida Department of Management Services, has nearly 15,000 registered buyers who issue, on average, 5,000 purchase orders each month. MyFloridaMarketPlace.com streamlines interactions between vendors and state government entities and provides the tools to support procurement for the state of Florida.

Florida agencies have three levels of purchasing: (1) Formal purchases (greater than $35,000; require competitive bidding); (2) Informal purchases (less than $35,000; no requirement for competitive bidding); and (3) State term contracts.

After you determine which level best matches your business’s abilities, your next step is to register in the MyFloridaMarketPlace system. For details, visit www.dms.myflorida.com/myfloridamarketplace.

Tags: Florida Small Business, Growing Your Business

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