Small businesses are the engine room of Australia’s economy, with over 2.4 million actively trading small businesses powering towns, cities and industries nationwide. Yet, with the cost of living increasing, interest rates rising, and a looming recession, small businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and save money to not only survive economic uncertainties but thrive.
Technology plays a vital role in saving businesses of all sizes valuable time and resources. Through automation, businesses can spend more time on the things that move the needle rather than wasting hours on repetitive, administrative tasks. So how can small businesses use technology to plan, pivot and prepare?
Re-evaluate your technology
With all, and particularly small, businesses facing a troubling economic outlook, it’s time for business owners to prepare and evaluate where the business is now and where they want it to be in the future. Having the right technologies in place not only saves valuable time and resources, it can also give greater visibility across the organisation. Greater visibility enables more informed and timely business decisions which, ultimately, can streamline processes while cutting costs.
For a business owner, understanding what technologies your business currently has, what is serving you well, and what can be done better is a great place to start. From here, you can work out what gaps your current technologies are missing and determine what you need to bridge those gaps to support doing better business. Although it might not seem like the best time to invest, investing strategically, in the right technologies, can actually drive a strong return on investment.
Find the right tech for your business
The key to this strategic investment in technology is having visibility across every aspect of your small business. The more you know, the better decisions you can make to ensure you’re saving valuable resources while maximising profits. Technologies like enterprise resource planning (ERP) and financial planning and analysis (FP&A) are great tools for small businesses to leverage as they give full visibility over operations and costs.
One area that many businesses struggle with is having multiple platforms that don’t work together. These silos create more work for small businesses and often hinder productivity. Tools like ERP and FP&A, consolidate information in one place rather than having multiple technology platforms working in silos. With increased costs and economic uncertainty, ERP and FP&A tools can assist small businesses in reducing operating costs, streamlining the flow of information across the organisation, improving data access and quality, while also helping business owners make more informed and timely decisions.
Prepare for the future
In a time where talent is hard to engage and retain, technology helps by reducing the mundane tasks that take up valuable employee time. Technologies, like ERP and FP&A, as well as automation, help businesses to streamline their processes and procedures and maximise their employees’ time. It also enables employees and small business owners to be more productive and focus on tasks that drive revenue and increase customer loyalty.
Planning for tomorrow starts today. To have the greatest chance of success, the small businesses that plan, pivot and prepare for the future will be the ones that stand out from the crowd. Organising and optimising your business’ back end dramatically improves the front end. Having insights into all aspects of your business, with technology that works seamlessly together, makes it easier for businesses to make greater decisions, ultimately boosting productivity and driving revenue.
