Expand Your Business

Training › Medium Enterprise training

Your five-year expansion plan, built with your management team

Ready for new markets, new products or a new branch, but not sure the business can carry it? You and up to three managers work through four questions: where are we now, where do we want to be, how do we get there, and what is our plan. You finish with a costed five-year Business Expansion Plan that shows whether the investment pays back.

▶▶ Watch the short introduction to the course on YouTube

What you walk away with

• ✔A full analysis of the business: competencies, SWOT, customers, competitors and ratios
• ✔A five-year vision, objectives and expansion strategy
• ✔Operations, marketing, ICT, people and finance plans, with investment, payback and NPV
• ✔A two-minute pitch and a one-page summary for lenders and investors

See the prices Start the course

Choose how you want to learn

Already have the self-paced course? Add a webinar or a live class on the course page and pay only the difference. Pay by EcoCash or Paynow; the self-paced course opens as soon as your payment is confirmed.

Where two prices are shown, the first is for paid-up Small Enterprise, Medium Enterprise and Corporate members, and the second is for everyone else, including Standard members, Start-up members and non-members. The price covers the owner and up to 3 managers working on one plan: the owner names each manager in the course and assigns their area(s) of the plan (operations, marketing, ICT, people or finance); each manager receives their own invitation, takes a shorter contributor path and sends their area to the owner to accept. Paying for the owner? The course asks for the owner’s details first and goes to them. Each extra person is US$50, on the course page under Need more seats?.

About the course

Plan your next stage of growth: where the business is now, where it will be in five years, and how it gets there.

For established businesses that are ready to expand into new markets, new products or new places. In one course you analyse the business as it is today, set a five-year vision and objectives, choose an expansion strategy, and plan the operations, marketing, ICT, people and finance that deliver it, including what the expansion will cost and whether it pays back. You finish with your Business Expansion Plan, a two-minute pitch and a one-page summary, appraised by your SMEAZ consultant. Adapted for Zimbabwean conditions from the International Labour Organization’s Expand Your Business programme.

Who it is for

• Owners and managing directors of businesses that have traded for at least a year and employ 5 to 100 people
• Their managers for operations, marketing, ICT, people and finance: the price covers the owner and up to three managers, who draft their own area of the plan on a shorter contributor path
• Businesses that keep records and have financial statements to work from, at the Success stage of growth or beyond (check your stage)

What you will do

About 32 hours in all: roughly 12 on screen and 20 on your own business and with your management team. Take about a module a week: most businesses finish in six to eight weeks.

1. Where are we now? (6.5 hours). Your mission and vision today, core competencies, SWOT, products, customers, competitors, the wider environment and five financial ratios, ending with your competitive advantage and the gaps at your stage of growth.
2. Where do we want to be? (6.5 hours). Your role as the owner, a five-year vision and core values, the next stage of growth, your expansion strategy, objectives, performance measures and targets.
3. How do we get there? (13 hours). The operations, marketing, ICT, people and finance initiatives your strategy needs, the investment it takes, a five-year forecast, payback and net present value, and the strategy you choose.
4. What is our plan? (5 hours). An expansion readiness check, a dated two-part action plan, your two-minute pitch and executive summary, and review.

What you leave with

• A Business Expansion Plan: where the business stands, your five-year vision and objectives, the expansion strategy you chose and the initiatives, investment, forecast, payback and NPV behind it
• A two-minute pitch and a one-page summary for lenders, investors and partners
• The SMEAZ Expansion Plan workbook (Excel): ratios, investment plan, cash flow, payback, NPV and option comparison, worked out for you
• A Certificate of Completion when your plan is approved, and a Certificate of Competence once its first milestones are in place

How the self-paced course works

• Work on your phone or computer, in short sessions. Your answers are saved as you go.
• Every exercise is about your own business, not a textbook case.
• An AI coach comments on your key answers and asks the questions a consultant would ask.
• A SMEAZ consultant reviews your finished work and replies with comments.
• Your certificate carries a number and a QR code that anyone can check on our website.

Ready to start?

Start the course Join the live class list

You will be asked to log in to your SMEAZ website account first. No account yet? Registering is free and takes two minutes.

What comes next

The Medium Enterprise membership adds a member consultant who follows up your expansion plan with you every month, and links it to business matchmaking, tenders, export development and funding.

Questions? Message us on WhatsApp.

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