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How to diversify your product line for less

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We live in an encredibely competitive world when it comes to business. Companies are constantly struggling to get an edge over their competitors. With problems in the market it is especially important that you find ways to protect yourself and to expand your business. One of the most typical problems that many business owners face is diversyfication. When a business begins it usually has only one product to market. It becomes famous for that product but when the fad is over the business has nothing else to offer. At this point the business could either fail or try to develop something new. A better strategy is to diversify a successful product line early, so that you have new things to offer the customer.

Markets run on innovation. Companies that do not grow quickly die. The best companies keep new products and innovations coming. Think about a company like Apple computers or Toyota. They don't just stop with one great computer or car-they keep changing things up and giving us new products. These companies are extremely successful at diversifying their product lines. They constantly think about how they are going to produce something new. They think about the next step in growing their business rather than just how to maintain it in the short run with one product type.

However, diversification costs allot of money and your company might not have the cash for it. Toyota and Apple have plenty of cash with which to develop something new, but you don't have millions sitting around. If this is your situation you need to find ways to diversify your product for less.

You can diversify for less through some careful planning. The stage at which diversification needs to take place is at the drawing board. If you want to save money you need to look for ways to cut costs while designing the product. If you do something that is extremely different than what you have done before you will essentially need to completely develop a new product. This will cost you about as much as starting your business did.

The key is to look for ways to manufacture something without dramatically changing the prior model. Manufacturing requires so much planning, materials, and machinery, that changing something dramatically will mean completely retooling. You need to try to figure out how to alter your existing product line just enough to attract a customer. Conduct marketing surveys to find out what sorts of changes would attract existing customers to a new product. The key is to find some changes that won't cost your business a tremendous amount. You need to find something that will make a change that attracts a customer but that won't sink the bank. This can be done partly by changing things like material or by adding something small. You would be amazed at just how much can be done with changes in color and small functions. Adding a clock to something or a minor accessory can make a huge difference. Even by shaping something slightly differently you will find that you can sell a product like it was totally new.

Another great way to diversify for less is to simply change the name of the product and make a minor alteration. Give a product a slight change in its color, shape, add a slight improvement and give it a different name. These sorts of changes might seem insignificant but they are the sorts of things that many top manufacturing firms do to diversify their products.

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