Resolutions to kick-start your business

Resolutions to kick-start your business The New Year is here, bringing with it fresh opportunities and challenges.

Anton van Heerden, executive vice-president, Africa & Middle East at Sage, suggests some financial resolutions to kick-start your small business in 2017.

Use a quiet week or two at the beginning of the year to set out your goals and strategies for 2017 before the hustle really begins. You can ask yourself the following questions:

Do we want to target new customer segments? Should we replace our outdated tech with new software and computers? Is it to time to strengthen the team by hiring new people? Are we happy with our product and service lines? Are we pricing appropriately? Should we be looking at new business partnerships? Should we consider digital/e-commerce solutions to take my business to the next level?

Forecasting your cash flow

You should have a cash-flow forecast for at least the next 12 months, so that you can determine how your company is likely to grow. This will also make it easier to identify weak areas that may be losing money. You can do a comprehensive cash-flow forecast with nearly any good accounting software package.



Consider going paperless

The two most popular benefits to switch to a paperless office are the environment and saving costs. While these two are important, there are many hidden positives that tossing paper can do to help small businesses reinvent and simplify their endeavour - leading to increased profitability.

It isn't simply cutting the spend on paper that is a benefit, but also saving on the purchasing cost of filing cabinets, paper and folders, the cost of the office space to store the filing cabinets and paying staff to maintain the often cumbersome system.

This also includes no longer needing to purchase as many copiers, fax machines, printers and time wasted looking for paperwork that has been misfiled.



Get automated: Find a good software accounting tool

Good accounting software that can grow with a business, preferably from a supplier that also started small and understands the challenges of this market, helps a business owner keep a finger on the financial pulse of the entity.

The introduction of cloud-based accounting software has also made the costs of this service more financially viable. Technology has the ability to automate and speed up the calculations of business expenses such as tax and payroll and ensure that these are accurate. By automating accounting processes, this will free up time for staff to focus on other activities.

The beginning of the year is a great time to get in touch with clients, suppliers and other stakeholders.

A personal phone call or email to wish them well for the New Year is a good way to get on their radar early in the year.

Even the best-run businesses have occasional months where they experience an unexpected gap between the money they need to pay their bills and the money that comes into their bank accounts.

Unforeseen events such as productivity lost because of strikes and power outages, expensive machines that break, or a big customer missing a payment date can cause a temporary cash crunch for healthy business.

FIN24