Big year for small business

And it seems now more than ever, that time is of the essence and businesses need to be ever more agile and brave enough to move as quickly as our clients and customers.

AGL’s chief executive officer, Andy Vesey, was quoted in the media recently talking about how the digital economy had completely changed the pace of business and success.

“Businesses are in essence decision factories,” he said.

“They gather information, process it, and take actions.

“Those that can gather more relevant data, process that data more quickly and act on it faster than their competitors win.

“Decisions that took months can now take moments — fundamental advantage will come to those who can deeply reorganise around the capabilities that digital technology provides.”

Some recent research by Telstra as part of its Small Business Intelligence report also found that the primary attribute for a small business to thrive was a willingness to embrace digital technology.

The report found 62 per cent of consumers surveyed said they would not consider a business if they could not find it online.

Yet it’s estimated that only around 50 per cent of small businesses today have a website, let alone a digital strategy or online presence.

Put digital agility to one side and one of the biggest stumbling blocks that gets in the way of the ability of any business to move faster and play smarter continues to be the monster that is cash flow.

I’m sure I’m not the only business owner that regularly looks back over a period of a completely frenetic run of work and a mountain of happily billable hours only to be confronted by a bank account balance that looks like it should be on life support.

According to the accounts, there’s no doubt that we’ve earned a tidy sum, so why does it require such herculean efforts to get it in the door?

Clearly, I’m not alone with Illion (formerly Dun Bradstreet) estimating there’s more than $19 billion in outstanding payments that go well beyond the excepted 30-day payment term. WELL, there’s a range of cash flow management options from short-term business loans and lines of credit to renegotiating supplier contracts and building in attractive incentives for early payments.

Given our reliance on plastic, you might also want to consider adopting online payments which will enable your customers to pay with their credit card and arguably make the process of payment much simpler — and hopefully faster. A YEAR of thought-provoking work, great results and significantly less time chasing up tardy payments that ‘just seemed to have missed last week’s payment run’.

That would do wonders for my business confidence and we might just reconsider popping that bubbly. Leigh McClusky is McCo Group Communications managing director