If you’re running a successful business from home, the logical next step is expanding outside of the house and finding some office space and a few staff members.

But that’s not the best option for some people, particularly if you started a home business so you could fit it around other responsibilities, like raising a family. You can leave things as they are, but you aren’t likely to increase sales and even if you do, you won’t be able to cope with the extra demand.

Fortunately, you can expand a home based business without having to move into a larger premises, here’s how to do it.

Outsource Marketing

If you want to take your business to the next level, you’ll need to increase your marketing output. Doing it yourself through social media is fine for now but it won’t be enough if you’re going to expand.

You don’t need to hire an office and a dedicated marketing team for yourself if you just outsource it instead. It can be pretty expensive so you might have to take out quick personal loans to cover the initial costs but you’ll be able to pay them back fairly quickly once you see a return on that investment in the form of increased sales.

Having a professional marketing team handle your advertising is the easiest way to reach more customers and improve sales.

Outsource Fulfillment

Unless you’re selling handmade products online, you’ve probably already got somebody manufacturing your products for you. But when sales increase, you won’t be able to deal with all of the shipping on your own from home. That’s why you need to outsource your fulfillment operation.

The benefit of using a fulfillment company is that they will be able to ship in larger numbers that just wouldn’t be possible for you on your own. They’ll also have depots around the country, meaning that customers can usually get their products a lot quicker.

However, you’ve got to be careful when you’re choosing a company to outsource to because there are some downsides. Firstly, they don’t know the product as well as you so when it comes to packaging, they’re more likely to make mistakes, leading to more damaged items.

They’re also going to be dealing with all sorts of products, meaning that yours won’t be a priority. Before you agree to a contract, ask to see evidence of their past work and try to contact some other companies that have worked with them if possible.

Use Freelancers

The freelance job market has exploded in the last decade, making it far easier for you to put a team together without having to move into a large office. For example, if you need more people to process orders, answer emails, and do other general admin tasks, you can easily find a virtual assistant who will do all of that from home.

Increased output on your website is also important and, while your marketing team will handle some of that, you can find freelancers to write content for you. You can also create the illusion of a large customer service call centre by hiring a couple of freelancers to answer phones and deal with queries.

By making these 3 changes, you can easily expand your home business without having to move into expensive office space.

This post has been contributed by Ryan Gatt, it may contain affiliate links.