Today’s guest post is written by Amy Green & Melanie Marconi of ‘Where Will They Stay?. These ladies have some wonderful tips for how to keep things fun, supportive, and positive amongst team-members in your business.

There comes a time in most entrepreneurs’ careers where you start to feel comfortable with the business that you’ve grown from the ground up. While comfort and stability is generally a good thing to have in your company, it may also mean that it’s time to explore your next step.

MelanieMuch like building a house, it’s important to ensure that your foundation is solid before adding on extensions and side projects. Our first company was well-established with a healthy client base before we decided to venture out and diversify our business. If you find yourself satisfied with the way your company is going, it’s time to think about how you can branch out to keep your brand relevant and bring in new business.

Where to start

When you make the decision to expand your services, you’ll want to look within your existing business to see if there’s anything that you can monetize that hasn’t yet been capitalized on. For us, we had a unique specialty in the fact that we were booking tens of thousands of hotel rooms for conferences each year for our event clients. We saw a need in the social event industry for a company that specialized in this area and, from there, Where Will They Stay? was born!

Think about what you love to do, as well as what your special skills are. Chances are that you’ll find your unique selling point just by digging deeper into your talents and passions.

Potential challenges

There are obstacles involved for all startups, but this is especially the case when you’re starting up a second business or even when you’re simply introducing new products or services to your existing company. It’s important to find balance in your responsibilities, as to not ignore your core business and its clients. It is, of course, the reason you’re able to expand your services and take this next step! You also want to avoid stretching yourself too thing, as burnout is all too real and can often cause great ideas to fall by the wayside. A great way to prevent this is to ensure that you have a solid, capable team around you to handle different aspects of your new venture. It will make the process that much easier!

AmyA word of advice

So, you want to expand your services. Coming from two event professionals who did the same, we always think it’s a great idea to diversify your portfolio and take on side projects. However, it’s important to fully understand the commitment of a new project before diving in headfirst. Be prepared to work hard, especially in the first year or two of your new endeavor. We had many, many late nights together as we prepared one business for launch, while still nurturing another. Again, having an amazing team and a group of consultants to assist with the workload was definitely a help in the process.

As long as you and your company are in a good place, taking the next step to diversifying your services and branching out can be just the answer you were looking for. It’ll not only boost your bottom line, but you’ll also see continued company growth and increased brand recognition. What are you waiting for?

Amy Green and Melanie Marconi are the founders of BDI Events, a full-service event planning company based in Los Angeles and Portland. They also own Where Will They Stay?, a free service which offers custom room block procurement for event planners and event venues. Key to their business model is offering referral commissions to those in the event industry.