After the chaos of EOFY, July it is a great time to reassess your business goals and get organised for the new financial year.
Just like your personal new years’ resolutions, our first tip is to take some time to reset and start with a clear mind and clear goals.
1. Take some time to review and assess your business goals
This may seem like a mammoth task, but if you continue to put it off, it will just snowball. A great way to start this process is a team planning day. Team bonding is a great way to get everyone on the same page, and get the team motivated and thinking about the direction of the business.
You may already have long term strategic goals so this session doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel of your business. It may be more short term goals that will help you get to where you want to go. There are some new techniques such as agile planning and new technologies which allow you to focus on your short term goals that will take you in the right direction to reach your longer term goals. Planning tools such as Asana, Trello and Slack which can be implemented to help you get this process rolling.
Setting 90 day goals are a great way to chunk down what seems like the impossible, giving your team more achievable targets and creating a more positive culture within your business.
2. Be aware of any changes in financial requirements
As of 1 July 2018, you will need to make the necessary adjustments to your systems and processes to account for changes in policy, such as payroll adjustments with new tax tables, new reporting requirements or other entitlements that you can take advantage of such as tax breaks, depreciation or incentive opportunities. The best option is to talk to your accountant early and make sure you are set up to account for these changes. If you don’t address these changes immediately you may find that you end up with a debt owing to your employees or to the government. By getting your systems and processes up to date as soon as possible you can avoid problems down the track.
Talk to your accountant to get the latest information and requirements for your business so you don’t regret it later.
3. Review your prospects and opportunities - get to know your customers
Your customers are always a part of any priority list when it comes to small business. How you manage your customer relationships should be at the top of the list. Investing in a CRM is paramount as it will set you up for continued growth. A CRM should help you learn more about your customers and how they interact with your business, a good CRM should make this process easy and save you time rather than create more work for you. If you are already have a CRM it is a good idea to spend some time updating, refreshing and cleaning it. Just like the engine in your car, your CRM can be the engine of your business therefore servicing it is a great investment. Having a clean customer database will make it easier to identify your loyal customers and reconnect with them.
Start your free 30 day trial with Act! CRM or speak to one of our expert CRM consultants at Act Today to see how you can update and clean up your database or upgrade your version of Act!
4. Automate where possible
Technology is always changing and improving, so now is a good time to review your systems and make sure you have the latest and greatest tools for your business. Make sure to take advantage of any automation opportunities that will make your life easier. There is nothing wrong with looking to make your life easier and your business run smoother. If you are looking at automating processes, make sure the new systems you are choosing integrate with your existing systems. The last thing you want is to automate something only to discover you have created an additional workflow problem downstream. Research your solutions and make sure you get expert help and advice on implementation of new systems.
Decide on which systems make your life easier (we hope it is Act! CRM) then look at other add-ons that can help you automate processes from there. Act! Connect and Act! Add-ons make it easy for you to connect with other systems so that your can streamline your business operations.
5. Delegate
As a business owner, CEO or senior leader, it can sometimes be a struggle to let go and allow others to get the jobs done for you. Use this time to do a self-evaluation and take a good hard look at what you do on a day-to-day basis in your business. Is what you do the best use of your time? Does someone else have more expertise in some of these areas ? Could you be using this time to focus on other areas of the business?
The benefit of freeing yourself up to work on the business instead of in the business can really be a ground breaking and eye opening moment in your business. It takes a bit of faith, but if you employ the right experts for the right job you will find delegating a breath of fresh air.
If you don’t have the expertise within your business to be able to delegate, look externally at consultants, while it may seem more expensive, expert consultants can get the job done a lot quicker and can also train your internal resources on the best practice for the future.
Act Today are your local CRM experts. We know small business and Act! CRM is our favourite tool to help small businesses grow.
Get in touch to discuss your new finanicial years’ business resolutions today.
