The 2024 small business checklist: get the right platform for your needs
Have you got the right tools you need to manage your business in 2024?
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With 2024 underway, it's time to take stock and look at how you can set your business up for success over the next 12 months.
So today, we're taking a look at some of the main considerations for getting your business organised.
❑ Get your business management software in order
One of the big problems plaguing many small businesses is having scattered and disorganised information. The digital age has been the norm in most workplaces for at least a decade, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily been well organised!
Records spread across multiple platforms, systems that don't talk to each other, no central sources of truth – the list goes on.
The good news is that there are solutions available. For many companies, investing in a unified business management platform can be an effective way to streamline processes and enable far greater productivity across the company.
One example of a business management platform is MYOB. MYOB allows business owners to centralise a range of functions into one online platform. These functions include accounting and tax management, customer management, enterprise resource planning, workforce management and project management.
Integrating these functions can provide your organisation with a central source of truth for all employees, which in turn can help streamline procedures and save on costs over a longer-term period. This also makes it easier to scale as your business grows.
At the moment, you're also able to you're also able to try MYOB free for 7 days, then pay from $5/month for 6 months*.
❑ Check your finances
The start of the year is an excellent time to review your finances. It allows you to look at whether your forecasts for the year are on track, reassess your expenses and look for ways to use funds more wisely throughout the year.
This review should encompass considerations such as overheads, outstanding invoices, projected tax and current cash flow.
Having tools such as MYOB at hand for this process can be extremely useful. You're able to create (or recreate!) and track invoices. You're also able to get an integrated view of the orders and projects that they align with.
With your financial data centralised, you also won't need to worry about key information getting overlooked or irregularities being missed.
❑ Assess your staffing needs
Staffing is a complex consideration for growing businesses. Hire too early, and you run the risk of using valuable funds inefficiently. Hire too late, and you might not get the talent you need, or even overextend your existing team.
This is why the new year is a good time to look at your overall business strategy (more on that in a minute) and make some key decisions around recruitment.
Having a more holistic view in place through a business management platform can allow you to make more informed decisions on this front.
Additionally, MYOB allows you to incorporate a number of HR functions when you do hire. Onboarding, payroll, leave entitlements, rostering and more can all run through MYOB. This allows all of your staff to have a centralised resource for information, rather than needing to bounce around between multiple programs.
❑ Pre-empt potential supply issues
Inventory management is critical for any successful business. So by reviewing last year's data – and combining it with your overall vision for growth – you should be able to make more accurate projections for what and when you need to order.
The right business management platform can also assist with this process. For example, MYOB allows you to view your current inventory, supplier bills and sales orders in one place.
So although you can set your strategy at the beginning of the year, this allows for better on-the-fly decision making.
❑ Set your strategy roadmap for the year
Establishing a strategy for the new year is critical for any business. It gives the business – and by extension, individual team members – clear goals to pursue throughout the year.
For some organisations, 2024's strategy will be a variation of the previous year's. This means you can stay the course and adjust the numbers as needed. For others, you might need a pretty radical overhaul.
Both approaches have their places, and neither is necessarily 'better' than the other. It's more about the individual situation and needs of your business.
Likewise, the strategy can be revised throughout the year if it's clearly not working. It's not an immutable text!
What is important is that it's devised with clear facts and data, rather than a simple gut feeling.
Again, this is where the right business management platform can be extremely helpful. Tools such as MYOB allow you to have a centralised source of information across the business, enabling you to view it holistically.
Having a clear overview of the business in its entirety will allow you to develop your strategy with a firm basis to work from.
Learn more about how MYOB can benefit your business today
Sponsored by MYOB. Get accurate data reconciliation, automated expenses and secure access from anywhere. Try MYOB Business free for 7 days, then pay from $5/month for 6 months.
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