In this edition of our Business Lifecycle Series, Moore Australia shares how businesses should prepare for growth and provides some practical strategies you can apply to help you achieve business growth.
The top-3 or most used growth strategies for a business include:
- adding new locations
- investing in customer acquisition, and
- expanding product lines.
However, diving in head-first into a plan which may not suit your business is a recipe for disaster.
Setting out your path for business growth must be a strategic one, and we need to first recognise the market challenges and changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Identify your Post COVID customer
Due to the measures taken by governments to reduce the spread of COVID-19 during 2022-2021, with stay-at-home orders and commercial trading restrictions, economic activity changed, as has consumer behaviour. Consumers changed their spending patterns during COVID and again post-COVID, whilst becoming very good at virtual meetings. If you started your business shortly before or even during the pandemic, it is important to understand that your initial data might not be an accurate foundation for future modelling.
Businesses must now look for opportunities to achieve maximum growth and be able to sustain it; to do this you will need to review specific changes unique to you and your customers across the sector, the industry and operations, and also understand the barriers.
Following below, we’ve identified obstacles and provided strategies which will enable growth and ultimately business success in a post pandemic world.
Ensure you have a healthy talent pipeline and your business is staffed for growth
A fallout of COVID-19 is that it has created a global labour shortage across all industries, skillsets and regions.
It will take several years for this to change as people regain their confidence in cross-border travel. Some strategies that may assist in attracting and retaining your staff include:
- Offer flexible arrangements: this means not only flexible working hours but also the ability to work from home or even another country, if viable for your business operation.
- Look at employing overseas staff and sponsoring them if they have Visa issues. Sponsorship can create a sense of loyalty to the business.
- Some businesses are starting to look at a four-day work week to attract and retain staff. Although these trials are still in their very early stages, it is worth noting this as a consideration in long-term strategic planning
Ensuring your staff rewards are benchmarked and fair will also help attract the highest talent. Additional benefits might also be something that can be considered and can even form a tax-efficiency for your business. We wrote about this in another article. However, be mindful of the trap of continued pay increases, as you will need to maintain them in the long term, even when the market changes.
Create an efficient supply chain so you can focus on your business
If you struggle to access parts and materials this may be prohibiting your business to grow. When it gets hard to access materials it means more resources are consumed by managing client expectations, timelines, jobs taking longer to deliver, more time is spent looking at sourcing options and often material costs are rising. Ultimately, this can not only impede business growth, but also business reputation.
For example: a car smash repair business can’t get the parts to finish off the current repairs. As a result, those cars sat untouched in the garage for weeks, the business couldn’t take on new work and ultimately cashflow stopped until the vehicles were finished, whilst an angry customer posts a negative review on a digital platform.
Four strategies you can apply to manage your supply chain, access materials, move forward and achieve business growth:
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Only take on work and jobs where you are able to source the materials and parts
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Proactively explore new supply channels to source materials and parts.
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Shorten the supply chain and use local suppliers where possible
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Be upfront with customers about the potential delays, this means you’ll also be able to manage their expectations.
Always keep in the back of your mind the importance of your business’s reputation and not having to manage any goodwill damage.
Plan for the future of your business by making decisions and create a strategy
Creating a strategy document sees you take on the exercise of considering your business plans for the future. As part of the process you will ask yourself questions, compile and review data, make decisions on how to move your business forward and determine how you are going to achieve business growth.
The alternative to a strategy document is to act by the seat of your pants, deal with surprises as and when they arise, go in random directions and not consider the full context of the decisions impacting your business. Even if your business model is agile and constantly changing, it is important that you revisit and revise your strategy with disciplined thinking regularly. Do not mistake agility for strategy. Although it is hugely important to be agile and have the ability to ‘roll with the punches’, having a structured approach to your business’ growth is often the key to delivering sustainable growth.
It does take effort to write a strategy document, however the work of creating a prioritised list of your best strategies and specific steps to achieve your goals, is a task you should be doing on some level.
Bring in an advisor for fresh ideas and new perspectives
As a business owner and entrepreneur, you are very close to your business, and this is how it should be. However, sometimes it pays to have an independent or neutral party assist you in identifying the wood through the trees.
Moore Australia advisors are experts in understanding individual business situations and provide practical, hands-on recommendations to meet your goals. Our team can support you as much or as little as you need.
Business growth aspirations can seem daunting and strategy documents meaningless, however it always pays to bring in an advisor early in the process, to make sure you capture the crucial information and important points are addressed.
For further assistance to prepare for your business growth and/or to discuss a strategic plan for your business, please contact a Moore Advisor.