OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW SMALL BUSINESSES

THE YEAR IS well under way, bringing with it a range of risks and opportunities for start-ups and growing businesses.

Some of the challenges your business will face – a volatile rand, Eskom load shedding, tax and labour laws – are beyond your control. To thrive in 2019, focus on what you can control by optimising your operations and enhancing productivity.

Here are a few tips about how you can evaluate and improve processes and technology.

1. Identify where poorfitting or old technology is slowing you down.

Even if your business is relatively new, there might be opportunities to streamline processes further or to introduce technologies that offer you better visibility into business performance. For example, a payroll solution can manage your payslips and SA Revenue Service submissions with the press of a button. An affordable cloud accounting solution can let you easily generate invoices, quotes and VAT returns.

2. Set goals for process and technology improvement.

Is the goal to free-up more time for your team to focus on activities that produce more income? Try to quantify the hours you wish to save and how they will be reinvested in the growth of the business.

Do you want to improve your insight into the performance of your business? Perhaps you want to improve the customer experience? Here are some ideas:

◆ Automating manual processes: Make better use of your people by reducing their workload and offloading the trivial, repetitive tasks while freeing-up their time and creativity for tasks that continue to grow the business.

◆ Data analytics and intelligence: Ensure not only that everyone can see the data they need when they need it, but also that the data is current. This allows a predictive approach to opportunities and problems.

◆ Improving accessibility: Ensure data is shared across departments and that it’s available to all 24/7, across all kinds of technologies, including mobile devices.

3. Identify the right tools and solutions for the job.

With so many business solutions to choose from, it can be difficult to decide where to invest and how to prioritise. Some factors you should consider as you look at possible solutions include:

◆ Integration: Ensure the systems you set up today can be integrated with third-party solutions in the future, and that they can easily integrate with your customer and vendor systems. For example, an integrated payroll and accounting solution will save hours because you won’t need to capture payroll transactions twice.

◆ Scalability: Look for a system that not only meets your needs today, but can also evolve with your business. By automating today with the right solution, you can avoid growing pains and the need for further complex integrations and implementations down the line.

◆ Mobility: Business today should not be limited to office hours or physical boundaries. Look for a solution that puts your customers’ and financial information in the palm of your hand. This will enable you to work remotely and boost productivity and responsiveness.