Marketing at the best of times isn’t easy, particularly now there are so many mediums to mull over. From your online tactics to your offline ones, life as a modern marketer has never been so varied but ultimately, it’s also never been as rewardable.
When a business does opt to take the plunge and expand their horizons, one of the biggest domestic decisions often involves them opening a presence in additional states. In some countries, this might be quite a simple practice, but rules, regulations and the general size of the US means that umpteen considerations have to be taken into account.
However, the rewards can be superb. There are countless successful examples to choose from but to hone in on one, George Bardwil has successfully taken his Bardwil Industries business across three separate states. Considering the fact that this is by no means a small business, and involves plenty of importing from countries such as India and China, taking this particular business further afield could have been somewhat daunting. With Bardwil Industries now stronger than ever, with approximately sixty employees, it would be fair to say that the move has been a successful one though.
To give any new business the best possible success of expanding across states like the above, we’ve now put together several simple actions that can help them along their way.
Licensing
It should probably go without saying that one of the first topics any business should explore are the licensing and permit regulations that don’t necessarily translate across states.
It would be impossible to provide general guidance in relation to this issue; each industry is completely different. For example, if you are an electrician, you will require different licenses depending on whether you are working in Indiana or California.
Suffice say, as licensing can add to your bottom line, this needs exploring immediately.
Do you have a scalable business model?
Next on the list is your business model itself. You might “feel” quite big with your twenty employees, but if this goes to 200 in quite a short space of time you might not have the infrastructure to facilitate this. Unsurprisingly, when you take your business across states, this is something you are very likely to have to deal with.
The best way to tackle this is just to plan for every eventuality. Most growing businesses will struggle because they simply didn’t foresee their growth - it came out of the blue. As you know you are about to advance across the country, you have time to plan. Work out what systems will need adapting, and go from there.
The State Tax Nexus
We’re going to end this guide on one of the trickiest issues; the State Tax Nexus. Unsurprisingly, when a business does go across the country, the tax laws become a little different. Suddenly, you don’t pay taxes to one state - there are multiple issues to consider.
Furthermore, different states will have different rules which dictate if you have to pay the tax to them, or the business’ “home” state. These rules vary enormously and while some states might demand tax from any business with just one employee, others might have more relaxed standards.
