Three steps to accelerate your business growth
Deloitte Private, part of the Deloitte member firm network, has helped thousands of private businesses with their strategies for driving growth and high performance. According to Sneza Pelusi, managing partner at Deloitte Private, these are three things that successful private business owners do well.
1) Create more time
Business owners need time and space to think about long-term growth strategies. This can be difficult when the daily demands of managing your business take up so much time. Embracing new technology can help you create the space you need to focus on the future. Recently, we have seen how cloud-based software allows businesses to easily and securely share information and view how they’re tracking at all times, at very low cost. Research conducted by Deloitte Access Economics shows Australian small and medium businesses with advanced levels of digital engagement are a staggering 14 times more likely to be actively innovating, eight times more likely to be creating new jobs and seven times more likely to be exporting. Connect by Deloitte is our cloud-based platform connecting clients and practitioners with class-leading technologies to provide a real-time client experience of accounting. We have also moved our business to the cloud, enabling us to engage with our clients in a more meaningful way.
2) Be future ready
Successful growing businesses are able to deliver today while maintaining a strong focus on their future needs. This isn’t easy with the temptation to spread yourself across many competing priorities, which often leads to a reactive strategy model. Instead, the “zoom out, zoom in” approach can be effective. “Zoom out” six years or more for a view of what success looks like then “zoom in”, identifying two or three business initiatives that will play a key part in helping you move towards your long-term objective. This allows your business to deliver short-term initiatives all predicated on a long-term strategy.
3) Invest in capability
Strong private businesses are meticulous about investing in the right capability to drive their growth strategies. They are also focused on outsourcing the functions that can be more efficiently delivered by others. For example, a common misconception is that small and medium businesses have ineffective finance teams. Our view is they’re not ineffective but incomplete by design, which is a good thing. For example, it may not make sense to invest in full-time tax capability when you can access this as needed from a trusted source. You need to consider what skills will really drive business growth and how to access the skills you may only need from time to time.