How to transform your small business
If you’re starting to transform your small business, focusing on growth is essential, not just survival. That way, you can ensure your company lasts for the long haul and brings in the money you need to succeed.
You can try many strategies to take your business to the next level, so don’t be afraid to explore your options! Remember: prioritizing growth is critical to achieving financial security and prosperity.
Are you looking to transform your small business process and systems while letting go and delegating more? – Welcome to the everyday entrepreneur challenge!
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. “ – Benjamin Franklin
Growth strategies to transform your small business
Every successful entrepreneur knows that business growth and diversification rely on you delegating and stepping back from running the show.
As such, every startup should have a solid growth strategy plan, and every strategy must include:
- Your value proposition and selling point
- Target customers and market segment analysis
- Efficient People and Talent Management hiring systems
- Optimized Process and Systems
- Performance management and KPIs
- Prudent financial control and budget forecast plans
Scaling up a startup business is typically a 10% strategy and 90% execution, where robust processes and systems come in. Your processes – how you do things – can even be a source of competitive differentiation, especially if you can systemize and automate effectively.
All startups and entrepreneurs reach the point where their business is scalable and ready to grow.
Many companies prioritize survival during the initial years when starting a business. However, focusing on business growth is a crucial step towards ensuring not only the longevity of your company but also your financial security and prosperity.
Identify the process and pain points.
We get it! Your startup business is a product of your conception and successful delivery. You nurtured it through the early stages of life, observing as it crawled and then rose to walk among others in the business world.
Just as a child is prepared for their first day of school to scale up your baby, you must now be ready to ‘let go and watch it grow!’. Falling and scraping a knee is a common occurrence for maturing children. What does a grown-up do in these situations? The parent or guardian applies an antibacterial ointment to prevent infection in the area.
To automate your business thoroughly, you should have a good idea of the daily business processes you and your team use. These are across all business areas, from sales lead generation and digital marketing to hiring a team and reconciling your cash flow.
Once you have a good idea of the processes, you will identify the pain points or “chokeholds” that create unnecessary headaches and delays for the business to operate as elegantly as you would like. These are ideal areas to explore automating to maximize your business productivity.
Simplify the process to automate and transform your small business
One of the critical rolling blocks is the time it will take to organize and align those process areas that would benefit from simplification and automation to help you transform your small business. Don’t let this stand in your way.
There is no replacement for preparation, and you must ensure you invest in researching the optimum solutions to fit your business operations requirements, i.e., don’t buy a full ERP suite of modules if you only require HR and Finance. Is outsourcing your digital marketing and content creation the best option in the short term? As you start to hire permanent staff, is payroll outsourcing the right fit for you?
Process Automation or Outsourcing
A few areas that would typically benefit from process automation and potentially outsourcing:
- New Hire Training – From new hires to those employees taking on new roles, an automated training system can reduce actual human resource work hours while presenting immediate ownership benefits to the trainees.
- Streamlining invoice operations – Automating the collectibles and bill-paying process alone will create self-sufficiency for managing your cash flow. In addition, utilizing cloud accounting software can eliminate some of your employees’ day-to-day bookkeeping duties.
- Managing Payroll and Expenses – Businesses of all sizes have an expert looking after your payroll, expenses, pensions, and personnel benefits. Several companies offer payroll outsourcing facilities, which is generally a sensible option if you’re not an expert. For your staff morale, everyone wants to get paid correctly!
Other outsourcing opportunities include digital/social media planning, sales and lead generation, supply chain, and IT operations.
Asset Management
As an entrepreneur, you realize that business growth will require additional office space, staffing, or significant technological investment. So, investigate carefully in this area before you make a substantial capital expenditure in purchasing new assets.
In recent years, more prominent corporations have quickly created in-house advertising/marketing, payroll, and other departments. However, if you are no longer the status quo as businesses (large and small) have developed the outsourcing process, the “freelancing” movement is on the rise.
Check out these websites – Upwork, Fiverr, and Business Talent Group. Software and process automation areas may be part of your answer, to name a few in these areas.
Still, you’ll need to weigh all the factors involved and the immediate impact on your cash flow.
Managing your performance to transform your small business
Now that you’ve identified and implemented new and improved processes, perhaps invested in some new technology to improve productivity further, focus now on running the show.
Everything discussed boils down to creating an atmosphere where overall performance is vital to you and the team and will continue to improve as you scale your business further. Don’t forget Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and management dashboard reporting.
Utilize systems automation, implement reporting metrics, and other newly created business operation methods to track areas of importance such as website traffic and new customers (and immediate added value by your company).
For example, how much return is on your marketing/advertising spending versus marketing channel, i.e., spending £120 to run a daily Facebook campaign that only delivers a £30 return on investment (ROI) in customer spending?
Enacting these business changes can result in you returning to your entrepreneurial roots, looking at different ways to improve this business (or even branching out into a related entrepreneurial opportunity). Determine areas of need (production roles or sales training, e.g.) and take a direct interest in improvement.
You may be surprised how much more you will accomplish now that you have delegated many daily business procedures.
Are you ready to transform your small business?
It’s pivotal for a business to have concise and well-developed business processes and procedures to provide the best chance of ongoing business success and scalability. If you struggle to transform your small business efficiently, check out our future scale-up articles for even more help. Let’s talk!
Contact us today to learn more about the Noirwolf Consulting team and how we can help you scale your business operations.
Get in Touch with Noirwolf
Are you looking to grow your business but unsure where to start? Our small business consulting and leadership coaching services are here to help! We’ll work with you to scale your operations and achieve your goals. Plus, we offer a free one-hour consultation to ensure we fit your needs correctly. Let’s get started!
Contact Noirwolf Consulting today using the website contact form or by emailing enquiries@noirwolf.com or call us at +44 113 328 0868.
