IDEAS TO ENSURE BUSINESS GROWTH

 Ettean Smit, SmartPractice Director | February 2020

“The most important thing I learned from experience is the power of having someone mentor and help you. It truly transformed my business. I went from my role as “accountant” to that of a “trusted business advisor and mentor.” My clients started realising they could bring their business problems to me and not only their accounting problems I could then give them a wide range of advice well beyond the scope of being just their accountant.” - Ettean Smit

BULK INVOICING
Far too many small businesses or consultants batch invoice where the volume does not justify it. Your receivables can count for 40-50% of your actual assets. Invoice as soon as you can. The longer it takes to process invoices, the higher your cost-per-invoice gets.

RECOVERY REPORT
Weed out the unprofitable and hard to sell items. NO business is better than BAD business. Simply, unprofitable customers consume more resources than they pay for. They divert attention from a company's profitable customers.

CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGEMENT (CRM)
Make it easier for your audiences.
1. Always default to the simplest level of information first.
2. Minimize the mental activity required by readers.
3. Don’t demand too much effort from readers.

PLANSMART
Find out what you do REALLY well, then delegate the rest. Your trust will probably be rewarded with increased capacity, leading to increased revenue.

Learn to let go.
Play to your workers' strength.
Always include instructions.
Don’t be afraid to teach new skills.
Trust, but verify.
Create feedback channels.

ANALYSIS CODES
Communicate effectively for efficiency in your staff's tasks instead of relying on their standard way of doing things. Stay focused and have clear goals and objectives. Performance-based incentives are often used to achieve this. This requires a critical look at your processes and whether or not they are measurable.

WORK FASTER
This is not as simple as it sounds, but if you can condense three four-month jobs into three three-month jobs, you can do one more job in the year. This should constantly form part of your planning process.

REWARD YOUR TEAM FOR MEETING BUDGETS AND TIMELINES
Speak to one of our directors on how to track your staff's performance. This is a monotonous habit you need to get used to, can be complex, but it is always rewarding as a 5% bonus is cheaper than a 20% increase in costs.

PROJECTS
People include what forms part of the project, but rarely include what should not be part of a project. It is better to clearly outline critical points which are not in the project's scope. Let’s consider that you are working on the installation of a new database project in an IT company and the scope is only installation and configuration. It is better to mention that migration of data from the old database in the scope. Because some stakeholders might consider that a new database installation will also cover migration of data. They must communicate risks that might affect the project, as well as constraints and assumptions. If constraints or assumptions of a project do not go as planned, these will affect the project scope and other aspects, respectively. Therefore, these must be agreed upon before commencement.

ATTEND LOCAL INDUSTRY EVENTS
When your local media needs an expert opinion, send them a relevant press release every month voicing your expert opinion, locally it can be an important way to find new business. If you want to work with local clients, focus on local events. If you sell a product nationally, then you should speak at the largest events you can.

GET YOUR SUPPORTERS TO REFER YOU
So, you’ve tried banner ads, sponsored Facebook posts and pay-per-click ads and have been a little dismayed at the return on your investment. Your digital marketing methods might have provided a slight boost in revenue and now you’re asking yourself: how can you grow your consumer engagement and get noticeable results?