Business strategy: make your systems work for you

29/06/2022

As a business owner, you must get on board with regular changes and updates to your systems, or get left behind.

Thinking about where your business may be in five years, are your current systems fit for purpose?

If not, this could seriously restrict your business growth.

What current systems do you have in place?

One common misconception is that the term systems only relates to the technology.

Whilst technology plays a huge role in your business, systems also relates to the processes that interact with your software.

So, your first step is to take assess your current systems for efficiency, business risk and capacity for growth.

Relating to your five-year plan, you will need to consider your systems and processes for all areas of the business, from finance, operations, staff management, recruitment and client engagement.

Staff and client onboarding are great examples of systems that will need to be considered and assessed when thinking about growth. if you are looking to scale up your business but do not have a proper system in place to train new members of staff, this will present issues down the line.

A similar approach should also be taken to your clients’ onboarding as well, it will be their first interaction with your business and first impressions really count.

If you currently have a small number of clients, you will need to integrate different systems that can securely store more data as your client base increases.

You should also factor in how you communicate with clients and whether your current system is sustainable.

Information is key

Without the correct information being readily available, your systems could also be ineffective.

For instance, if your current systems are overly reliant on you, what will happen when the business grows, or you wish to exit the business?

Consider each operation independently and document all of your operations clearly and concisely so that someone else can follow them in your absence.

This should be replicated across all of your systems.

Automation can make your life easier

Of course, using technology can simplify some systems. When opting for automation, you must factor in that the needs of the business may change as you get to where you want to be.

So, whatever technology you choose must have the capacity to support your growth.

As such, you can opt to add more apps to your online systems that can automate more services to ease the pressure on your business as you get to where you want to be.

Look out for our next blog which will focus on the role of finance in your strategy.

Need advice on your business strategy? Contact us.