Preparing Your Small Business for the Post-Covid Era

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Post covid|Preparing Your Small Business for the Post-Covid EraBusinesses have been one of the major losers to the Covid-19 pandemic that has swept the world. Small businesses, especially those who were fledgling, have been forced to either shut down or reduce operations to the barest minimum. This is definitely not the best situation, but things will eventually turn around. In this article, we shall be looking at how to prepare your small business for the post-Covid-19 era by asking some relevant questions.

Where Do you See your Business after the Pandemic?

Making smart strategic moves means that you comprehend the position of your business in the current economic disposition. Know where you stand in the industry, understand your role, and who the competition is. You must have a clear vision of where you want to be and make those strategic decisions that will get you there.

When your competitors and other industry players doubt the future, let your vision remain clear. Do not lose focus and follow a roadmap to attain your goals. Remain resilient and ensure all members and employees of your organization feel the same way.

How do you plan to recover?

Of course, your short-term and long-term plans have been thrown off-kilter by the pandemic, but what is your plan to bounce back? If you have insurance for small businesses, that may be a start as it can serve as a cushion to allay your losses. Your roadmap to recovery should include the steps you will take to attain the vision you set in the previous point above. Not having a plan will only keep you disoriented and leave you unable to take advantage of favorable situations when they arise because you are unprepared.

What changes must you undergo?

It will be difficult to come out of this economic downturn without undergoing a significant identity change as a small business. The pandemic has ruffled through every fabric of life and society; as such, change is necessary. Through resilience and focus, you can attain your goals, but change is also difficult and may cause some friction. As an organization, your primary focus should be the customer. Any change that you have to undergo to remain customer-focused necessarily is worth it.

Do you have any new projects?

If you do have any new projects you want to launch, run or coordinate, you will have to sit back and restrategize. What you first need to do is prioritize projects that will secure the future of the business. Stick to the most important projects, and do not over-stretch yourself. Trying to do many things at the same time will only leave you frustrated and drained. Before launching a project, make sure you have the manpower, logistics, and expertise to accomplish it. Be critical also of the timing of such projects to maximize their impact.

With the impact of the coronavirus pandemic unprecedented, leveraging what you can accomplish now to prepare for the predicted post-covid-19 economic boom is the best line of action. So, plan, adapt, execute, and keep in mind the vision you have set for your small business.

Thinking about expansion? 6 considerations to help you decide

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Expansion|Thinking about expansion? 6 considerations to help you decideIf you’ve been fortunate enough to withstand the financial shocks which rocked many businesses in 2020, and even managed to thrive, you may be thinking that this is a great moment to expand your business. Assuming that you have already had a good idea of the direction you want to go in, just ensure that you’ve taken the following into consideration in your planning.
Are we focused on our core business?

A strong recovery is forecast by many analysts but is by no means guaranteed. What are the factors that have created your success so far? Given the climate of uncertainty, building on your core strengths will be far less risky than venturing into the unknown. That means delivering more of the same, but better and faster. Of course, if you’re an entrepreneur with an idea for a product or service that will disrupt the market – decide whether it’s a risk worth taking

Do we have adequate finance in place?

While recovery is still uncertain, it simply won’t be enough just to cover direct costs of expansion. If your customers have been affected by the prolonged pandemic response, could this have a knock-on effect on your business? Ensuring you have the finance in place to carry you over a period of suppressed demand is essential. Specialist companies such as HS Finance can help with secured business loan applications to make sure you don’t find yourself in a cash flow crisis after making a significant investment in your expansion.

What about workspace?

Are your current premises adequate, or will you need to find larger ones? Or, could you reduce the amount of space you use? With the increased need for social distancing, and many people now working from home, at least part of the week, expansion may result in reduced costs.

Investing in people

Linked to the above. If you’re shifting to a remote working model, keep in mind the duty of care you’ll still have for your home-working employees. They’ll need appropriate tools and equipment to do their job efficiently and safely. Make sure you include these expenses in your plan, along with additional training and support.

Are your systems fit for purpose?

When you expand, will your current systems be able to cope? Ensure any new software you invest in is scalable. New cloud-based PaaS systems, such as MS Azure, are cost-effective, flexible, automatically updated with the latest apps and services. As they typically charge on a monthly, by-usage basis, there’s no need for huge up-front investment.

Do we invest in marketing?

Once you’ve expanded, you need to get out there and sell! How are you going to let customers know about your new services? Is your webpage up to scratch? How are you managing social media for maximum exposure? Consider factoring in the cost of a marketing company into your plan to help generate the best return on your investment.

To be considering expansion, it’s clear that you’re energized and optimistic about the future of your business. With careful planning and a healthy dose of realism, you’ll be ready to reap the rewards of your hard work.

A Managed Technology Service Can Help Your Business Succeed

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | A Managed Technology Service Can Help Your Business SucceedWhen it comes to helping a business succeed, there are a lot of factors to consider. One of those factors is the way technology is used. If there’s too much of it, it can actually get in the way of a good customer experience or relationship due to the impersonal nature of all of it. But if there’s not enough, it can be very difficult to accomplish what needs to be done or even keep up with competitors. Clearly, it’s a balance that’s important and has to be addressed. Here are some things to consider when choosing the technological options that are right for your company.

Not Everything Needs to be Stored On-Site

For many companies, storage for customer data and other information can quickly become overwhelming. But making good use of the IT cloud can change the game. That allows your company to store much of its information somewhere else, so it doesn’t end up with servers that are slow and bogged down, glitches, lost data, and other problems. Too much of a load on your current systems isn’t good for your company or its clients. The IT cloud gives you choices, because you can put all the info in the cloud or choose what’s stored that way and what stays in-house.

Some companies worry about data breaches and related kinds of problems, but there is good protection in most of the larger cloud services — and many of the smaller solutions, as well. While it’s still possible that someone could get into the company’s information, that’s just as much of a risk when keeping the data on your own servers. In some cases it might be even more of a risk, because not all companies have the right kind of security or the level of encryption that a cloud-based IT solution can offer. With the cloud, a business can also get services that are managed and monitored, so they have less to worry about where data is concerned.

Managed solutions Can Make Data Storage Easier and Safer

Among the ways to add security to your company’s data storage is through a managed IT service that can collect, store, and monitor access to information. With managed services, a company can focus on the other aspects of operating the business and worry less about IT issues or whether customer data will be available when it’s really needed. Additionally, it’s easier to control access to information and reduce the chances of large blocks of information being accidentally deleted, lost, or mislabeled.

Companies can control what they want to see handled by their managed IT service, and that makes it easier for those companies to have peace of mind and a strong plan for the future. If a company isn’t sure what services they really need or how to handle those options, they can also work with their provider to get the information they need to make the right choices. Not only does that help protect the company’s customers, but it’s also better at ensuring employees have access to what they need, as well.

How to ensure your international expansion is as smooth as possible

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |International Expansion|How to ensure your international expansion is as smooth as possibleBusiness expansion is rarely easy but expanding internationally is something else entirely. Once you’ve reached a certain peak, however, there can be few places to go but up, out and across the sea. If you think your business has reached that domestic plateau and is ready to go international, there are a number of challenges you’ll first need to overcome.

Underestimating the cost

You’re going to want to assess your capital and ensure that everything is in its right place so it is as smooth a process as possible, but you also want to make sure it’s a process you can actually afford. In this case, external help from a corporate finance team who sort international expansion preparation on a frequent basis could be the best opportunity to reduce the chance of anything out of the ordinary occurring.

Language and cultural barriers

While expanding between countries like the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia should be more straightforward, if you want to expand outside the English speaking world then you’re going to need somebody on your team that is at least bi-lingual. Because Google Translate can only get you so far. And that’s before you even get started on the cultural considerations. You need to examine and understand the culture of the country you are wanting to expand into and ensure that your business appreciates by the common cultural barriers that could implement and restrict your business.

Research the local competition

Just because you’re at the top of the food chain in your home country, that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t have strong competition from more established local players when expanding. Don’t just assume you’re going to touch down on foreign soil and have the same kind of power and influence you do at home. Be cautious, build working relationships with local businesses beforehand and arm yourself with as much local knowledge as possible.

Tax and compliance

Particularly in a post-Brexit world, tax, feed and tariffs can be a massive barrier for younger domestic businesses to overcome when trading overseas. For this, what you really need is somebody on your team who understands the specifics and complexities of local legal requirements in all of the countries you plan to deal in. It might just be a case of ticking the right box but the penalty for ticking the wrong box can be a pretty severe fine.

Hiring locally

Finally, while you might be tempted to “put your best people on it” and send them across to run your new global venture for you, it’s likely they will not be taken seriously by the locals. You’ll need a decent foundational team of locals from the get-go who understand how it works in their country. At least while you’re still learning the ropes. And international business expansion is always going to be a learning experience above all else.

5 Brilliant Ways to Streamline Your Business Processes

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Streamline Your Business|5 Brilliant Ways to Streamline Your Business ProcessesStreamlining a business process means simplifying it. Usually, you can achieve this goal if you remove unnecessary or complicated steps. The introduction of modern IT platforms has made it easy for businesses to thrive.

With streamlined processes and workflows, your business enjoys numerous benefits. Some of these advantages include increased cost efficiency, improved productivity, better communication, low risk, and effective time management.

Here is how you can streamline your business processes for guaranteed growth.

Assess and Rank Existing Process

The first step towards achieving streamlined business processes is assessing the current ones to determine which areas require significant changes. List the functions in your company using simple terms and identify the benefits and the staff involved at each level.

Ranking the processes gives you an overview of the significance of each level of the workflow. You might discover that you have so many interrelated but unnecessary processes. Such information should give you an idea of which tasks to streamline first depending on priority.

Reduce the Paperwork

The amount of paperwork in your organization can tell whether you have simplified business processes or not. Assessing the paper flow is a critical step towards streamlining your business operations. When paperwork piles up, you might experience unwarranted lead times in most of the units.

Reduce the paperwork by removing unnecessary processes. Ask about information added or removed from the paperwork at each stage to establish if it is necessary. Usually, whereas some information – whether taken or removed from the paperwork – is essential, your business can do with lesser copies and a shortened process.

Consider Automating Repetitive Tasks

Repetitive tasks are time-consuming. How do you tell that you have such jobs in your business? Watch out for tasks you perform regularly, and establish if you use several systems to accomplish a single task.

Your goal here is to establish the possibility of saving time by consolidating the repetitive tasks so that you can perform them with a few clicks. For instance, with the best accounting software , you save time when invoicing and sending payment reminders and recurring invoices. Automating repetitive tasks frees up your staff and makes them more productive.

Have an Effective Technology Plan

Technology matters a lot in business nowadays. Updating your available hardware could be all you need to boost the productivity of your employees. You can achieve this by implementing a long-term technology plan based on your business goals and objectives.

The plan should help you determine which aspects will need a few updates to achieve the set business objectives.

Empower the Employees

Setting up the necessary measures to streamline your business processes could be ineffective if you do not have the right team. So, before thinking about how to market yourself effectively or improve productivity on a given level, focus on growing an empowered team.

Usually, the staff you have in your business have complete knowledge of your organization’s processes, so empowering them could help achieve the set business goals.

Whereas it may be difficult to achieve perfection in workflows and processes, adjusting and refining a few aspects can help you position your business at a strong point of success. Therefore, start with a few elements and monitor their impact on your business’s overall performance.