Why did the Phoenicians form colonies?

The prosperity of Phoenician cities such as Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos was based on trade, and it was the search for new commodities and new markets which resulted in the Phoenicians branching out from the narrow coastal strip of the Levant and colonizing territories throughout the ancient Mediterranean from the 10th century BCE. Some of these colonies, like Leptis Magna, Cadiz, and Palermo, became important cities in their own right, and none more so than Carthage on the north coast of Africa, which would eventually outshine its mother city of Tyre and create an empire of its own.