The new financial year is the perfect time to take a step back, look at how your business has performed over the past twelve months, and find the areas where small changes can make major improvements.
While we’ve moved past the lockdowns and restrictions from the peak of the pandemic, other macroeconomic factors mean we’re not quite at business as usual. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a third of businesses are struggling to recruit staff and nearly half, 46 per cent, face increases in operating expenses.
For businesses in Australia, there’s never been a more important time to look at how technology can empower them to do more with less. Here are three places to start.
Integrate your business data
From sales to team management, marketing to customer service, almost everything done within a business leaves a data trail. And those ones and zeroes reveal a business’s strengths and its weaknesses.
The power of data is undeniable, but it can get overwhelming if not managed effectively. My advice is to ensure businesses look for tools that integrate with one another to prevent silos and ensure that data can be managed from one source of truth.
Having all of this data easily viewable and manageable in one place makes it far simpler to make sense of what’s going on within a business and then actually extract value from the data.
Data can help identify areas to cut costs where return on investment is low; it can show how a business should market itself based on previous campaign performance metrics; or it can be used to observe team performance and identify opportunities for training or improvement from staff members.
Use automation tools to do the heavy lifting
With research revealing that more than a quarter of businesses are struggling with finding staff, automation tools become increasingly important as a way to do more with less. In the hospitality industry, for example, more than half of restaurants are investing in kitchen automation.
Point of sale technologies, mobile and QR ordering apps, are gaining popularity among business owners. The tools simplify order taking or to more effectively upsell from multiple sources and help free up employee time to focus on customer experience or business growth.
Using marketing automation tools is another powerful way to engage or reengage new and existing customers. Personalised campaigns, like welcome deals, birthday offers or incentives for lapsed customers, create a connection between a business and its customers and are easily set up and then just left to run automatically.
As the financial year draws to a close, chasing payments will be top of mind for many businesses. It can often be time-consuming and shift attention away from more important business tasks. With digital invoices businesses are able to automate payment reminders and chase up overdue invoices without having to think about it.
Seize control of your money flow
Having oversight and control over cash flow is vital. More than just automating repayment reminders, digital invoices also make it easier, and faster, for businesses to accept payments.
Research has shown that digital invoices with in-built payment capabilities are paid significantly faster than traditional invoicing methods (like posting a paper invoice, or emailing a PDF). The simple switch to digital invoices better positions a business owner to be on top of their money, ditch the paper trail and simplify their invoicing processes. Not only is it beneficial for businesses, but it also creates a streamlined customer experience.
The new economic year presents businesses with the ideal opportunity to invest time and resources into technology in order to run more effectively, streamline processes, and build resilience to overcome future challenges.
