The history books are full of sudden successes and failures. Some of these successes turned failures were due to trying to expand too fast. Remember running a business is a marathon not a sprint. Too many times we get excited about the tiniest advances and devastated by the slightest dip in fortune. Managing a business is like commanding a ship through a storm. You pray that you get to calmer seas but in the meantime you have to steer a course through the maelstrom.

Expanding your business should be done in a direct, calculated and sensible way. Too many times I have read about businesses, especially those founded and operated by engineers who tasted a little success and bore full steam ahead into the heart of the storm and were lost at sea, so to speak. With a more sensible plan, they might have not only survived but flourished. The problem is that once on a course of success, once has to remember that no business operates as a static entity but as a vessel being thrown to and fro through the raging waters.

Another way to look at it (if you are getting tired of the seafaring soliloquy) is have you ever seen a chart of earnings for a company that was represented by a straight line? No, they go up, they do down. Rarely, would you ever see a straight line for any appreciable period of time. That being the case, an expansion must be considered only when the timing is right. Yes, timing is the key. You do not want to over expend yourself when facing a calamitous situation of cyclonic dimensions.

Expansion can be fun. Yes, I said fun because only then can you really enjoy the fruits of your significant labors. Just use good judgement as to how much fun you plan to have. I remember one of the joys of my wives business was getting to go to Dallas Market Hall. This opportunity to truly see the future before well, you know the future becomes the present. Every new trend in merchandise lies before you unfettered and available for you to acquire at a good wholesale-like price. Want to see what the new furniture trends are, they have a floor for that. Fancy the new jewelry lines from Singapore, head to the top floor for a feast you will not believe. Clothing has its own building especially those items that cater to the female portion of our world. It gets very crowded but you will be rubbing elbows with purchasers for major retail empires to the mom and pop of the local mom and pop your grandparents used to patronize back in the day. All this to expand ones wares or to just get ideas of how to expand ones business. Careful the sharks will swarm and consume your credit. Speaking of sharks they have a section downstairs reserved for the palate (foods of all sorts, from tasty salsa's (Texas not New Jersey persuasions) to the various forms of chocolate both expected and the most unexpected). Samples abound so lunch is all but free.

So, off we go successful and bounding for the next level of success. Expansion has its own rewards but as the world turns on its axis so must your business follow the cycles that constrain us all. May your coffers be bountifully filled and your course be set for calmer waters with the odd storm just for interest sake. But beware, their be monsters out there.