How to Start & Run a B&B BandBED2eBook-1 | Page 104

Expanding your business
When your business is up and running, and you have got to grips with the problems
and know how to make the profits flow, you will want to expand the business.
This is where a B&B business is at a disadvantage compared with other types of
business – if you make Mars bars, you can easily manufacture more to meet demand,
but a B&B business is a prisoner of its physical property. Your turnover is limited by
the number of rooms you have and the number of days in the year.
What you may be able to do, though, if successful, is raise your prices, and thus
increase turnover and profits. You may also be able to add another room or two, either
by converting another part of the building or by adding an extension – or even by
building an annexe if you have room on your land. You will be able to judge the
economics of this by comparing building quotes with what you would be likely to make
in revenue from the extra space over the next few years. Don’t forget that with
property, you also get an added bonus from capital appreciation over time, which helps
tip the balance in favour of development.
Another route to expansion once you have a successful business model and an ever-
increasing flow of customers is to duplicate: buy another property and operate it as a
B&B. This could be a separately operated business, but gaining your flow of customers
and your overall management (perhaps run day to day by an employee manager) , or
effectively an expansion of your business – for instance, perhaps the property next door
could be bought and connected?
If your property itself is not your “USP”, and your success is from your own quality of
service, marketing and hard work, then you have another option: sell up and buy a
bigger property with more rooms instead.
Be creative – there are always ways you can “scale up” a successful business.
Selling your business
There may come a time when you will want to sell your B&B, so this book would be
incomplete without covering the selling process – or at least, preparations for a sale.
Selling is not failure – it is simply part of any planned business cycle; there comes a time
when your life’s priorities mean that the reasons for selling (releasing cash, downsizing
your property, cutting your workload, or relocation) outweigh the reasons for carrying
on as you are.
Your reasons for selling are very relevant, of course – both to how you plan the sale,
and to the buyer, who will always want to know. Yes, you may think it is none of their
business, but if you want to make your sale as easy and as successful as possible, you
will understand your buyer’s reasons for wanting to know yours, and develop a very
well-argued explanation to give.
How to Start & Run a B&B
www.howtorunabandb.com