Small business: Anthony O’Brien

It’s been a tough year but this seven-point plan can help your SME recover and prosper in 2021

For small to medium enterprise owners struggling to grow their businesses, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

In October, research from Australia Post showed that while revenue fell up to 67% for some industries at the height of the pandemic, the shift to additional online activity saw non-store revenue for the average small business increase by between $105,000 and $708,000. This news followed hot on the heels of the federal government’s decision to extend the $150,000 instant asset write-off until June 30, 2022, which was mostly well received by the SME community.

Notwithstanding these green shoots of positivity, 2020 has been a challenging year for many SMEs, which took significant revenue hits as the economy went into meltdown. However, as many have discovered, if you knuckle down, clear your mind and be open to new opportunities, it’s still possible to grow.

Here are some strategies that will help take your business to the next level in the year ahead:

1 Revise the business plan

To give your growth ambitions a chance, be sure to have a plan. Although the idea may sound overwhelming, it doesn’t need to be the length of War and Peace – a few pages will do the job nicely. A business plan is a roadmap that outlines your goals for your SME and how you intend to make them happen.

As part of the process, identify your target markets and include them in your plan. If you can understand everything about your target market and what its needs are, it will make it a lot easier to grow your business fast.

If you need some help with starting the planning process, business.gov.au offers a planning template as well as some tips to get you started.

2 Monitor the opposition

Once you have settled on your target market for 2021, it’s often a wise move to check out the competition. Luke Maddison, a director of sales at the marketing consultancy Sintoro, agrees. “It’s always useful to know what the competitors are doing. But copying them isn’t necessarily going to deliver you a result, it’s just another input to consider.”

There are subscriber tools such as SEMRush (semrush.com) and Ahrefs (ahrefs. com) that allow you to monitor your competitor’s landing pages, ad copy, content, links and more.

However, Maddison recommends using Google, which is free. “Google Alerts is a straightforward tool that can send you reports about your competition every time they are mentioned online.”

3 Automate your lead generation

Whether it’s Atlassian, Wesfarmers or a candlestick maker, the aim of any marketing activity is to create leads that can be converted to sales. Maddison says lead conversion involves understanding the journey customers take with your SME, and investing in a suitable customer relationship management (CRM) tool to manage this journey is usually a smart move.

He says many SMEs still try to manage their sales process on a spreadsheet, which is never a great idea. There are