Learning from Lululemon – When Should You Expand Your Offerings?

The WSJ reports that Lululemon, the activewear clothier for women’s yoga apparel is expanding beyond its roots. There’s a lesson in this for business owners.

Often times we’re advised to go niche and that is GOOD advice.

However, as you grow and you gain expertise in one market, it’s ok to TEST and CONSIDER extending that expertise into other markets.

Barbara Majeski, Brian Benstock, David Spisak and Raylen Davis discussed this on Breakfast with Champions today on Clubhouse. Once you gain expertise in one area, oftentimes that expertise can be used to grow in other areas.

They were commenting about the possible purchase of Elon Musk buying Twitter for $40+ Billion. He’s not going to run the company day to day. However, he’s been successful with PayPal (finance), Tesla (cars), and space flight. He’s got a proven record of being able to assemble the right teams, to carry out his overall vision of business success.

Of course, expanding into new markets doesn’t always work out. However, for mature businesses with a runway of cash reserves and market conditions to TEST, it’s worth the risk.

In the case of Lululemon. What are the mechanics of clothing?

Manufacturing. Design. Logistics. Retailing. Knowing your customers.

All of these things Lululemon has done relatively well.

Can it now diversify and expand to serve its core base of women in other areas?

What about your business.?

Maybe you’re great in legal services for startups. Can that expertise be parlayed into legal services for mid-tier clients? Or in helping startups in other areas of their business?

Starting niche and narrow is great. However, at times it’s time to expand and consider other markets.