Small business owners typically reach a threshold when they achieve a degree of success: How do they take their company to the next level, and how much should they risk in their growth plan? Sabina Manji is dealing with this issue as she charts the course for her small magazine company. She has set her sights on launching her title in Toronto, Canada's largest media market. But such a move won't Be cheap. Can she reach her goal while still protecting her core business?

- Stewart Thornhill, Executive Director, Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario
Sabina Manji looked at the stack of emails she had printed off and sighed. Each one had come from a parent, or parents, who lived in the Greater Toronto Area, and had been reading her magazine, The Mom & Caregiver (TMC). Obviously, she was pleased by the messages. Receiving reader mail is one of the most immediate signals that lets a publisher know that his or her product is getting attention. But there was a hitch. TMC was published in London, Ont., and focused exclusively on that market. Receiving positive feedback from readers in the Toronto region sharpened a conundrum that Manji had been wrestling with in recent months: Was she ready to expand and establish her company in a second city?
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