Business expansion has potential benefits and drawbacks. Some owners are reluctant to take the risk of growing the business and opt to stay small.

Benefits of a growing business

As a business grows it gains two major advantages over its smaller rivals. Large firms have more influence over market price. They're big enough to be price setters.

Large firms also often enjoy economies of scale. This means that a business has lower unit costs because of its large size. They can buy raw materials cheaply in bulk and also spread the high cost of marketing campaigns and overheads across larger sales.

For example, if a large firm can produce a given type of sunglasses for £20 while it costs its smaller rival an average of £30, then the larger firm has a £10 per unit…