Every small business wants to expand in one way or another.
For some, this could mean chasing more revenue or building a larger team, while for others, it could mean going after a greater market share or reaching into new sectors of the market.
Whatever the goal may be, the reality is that growth planning looks different for every business.
What’s equally important to understand is that there are several key pain points and growth planning challenges that can easily block this expansion path or make growth much harder for your business.
As a business advisory and strategic accounting firm, we see these challenges with the small businesses we work with every single day.
So, we’re going to:
- outline 5 of the most common growth planning pain points we typically see at LMS Advisory,
- before explaining how we work to overcome these challenges and help our clients achieve business success.
Let’s start with one of the most important challenges to solve for any business.
- Failing to set business goals
FACT: Without goals, you’re directionless – this means you’re guessing your growth.
Rather than being proactive and planning your next move, you end up being reactive and letting your business happen to you.
Here at LMS Advisory, we see this problem every day.
So many small business owners [CM1] still don’t realise that goals create direction and motivation for themselves, as well as accountability for their team.
That’s why we work to get them back on track by asking them to write down their goals, before stress-testing these goals and asking, “Is this good enough?”
- If the goals are too easy, we push them to strive for more.
- If the goals are too aspirational, we inject some realism back into the situation.
- If they don’t know what their goals are, we talk about the knowledge behind their numbers and outline a few common benchmarks we’ve seen in their industry.
Often, it’s not long until they start realising what their growth goals are – for their business and their personal lives.
Suddenly, they have a growth plan.
- A lack of understanding of the numbers
Your numbers tell the narrative about how your business is performing.
This begs the question: how often do you review your numbers? They hold so much knowledge about your business!
If you don’t regularly look over your numbers or you don’t understand what they mean, it’s difficult to convert them into useful insights that help you make more informed business decisions.
Bottom line: you cannot grow if you don’t know where your money is or what your numbers are telling you.
So, how do you turn your numbers into decision-making insights that drive progress?
At LMS Advisory, we help small business clients bring all their key numbers together, explain exactly what they mean in easy-to-understand terms and set up a regular review schedule to keep them on track.
In doing so, we enable Australian small business owners to make more informed decisions based on accurate data, leading to greater growth now and in the future.
- Struggling with cash flow, finance and funding
Cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. No exception.
You need cash liquidity if you’re going to invest in your growth and take your business to the next level.
This means you need to understand everything that impacts your cash flow, including:
- sales revenue
- marketing campaigns
- tech investments
- paying taxes
- drawing money from your business.
It’s also about understanding how your business interacts with lenders and stakeholders. If you can’t present your current or projected cash flow in an appealing way to investors, you’re not going to get the support you need to grow your business.
Here at LMS Advisory, we work with our clients to:
- understand where the cash is flowing in and out of their business,
- draw up cash flow forecasts, and
- put together a plan to ensure they’re liquid enough to meet their current and future financial obligations.
Essentially, it’s about reducing the possibility of cash flow surprises, providing greater visibility over available funds and enabling them to plan their growth for the future.
- Confused about team growth
Team growth is an extremely important part of growth planning, but making the right decisions around your team is not always easy.
From a financial perspective, team growth is about asking yourself:
“Am I investing in my finance function well enough to solve all these other growth planning pain points I’m experiencing?”
Essentially, it’s about having the right people around you – whether they’re a part of your team or a partner helping you execute certain business functions.
At LMS Advisory, we’ve supported many small business clients by working as their outsourced finance function one or two days a week when they needed it.
Effectively, this saves them up to $150k a year that they would otherwise spend on hiring a new CFO – until their business is ready to make that leap.
When it comes down to it, growing your team is about being able to handle what you’ve already got and what’s still to come. Your team needs to provide forward capacity for your business in order to grow.
Misusing or underutilising technology
Having the right tools and technology in your business is absolutely essential today.
Unfortunately, many small businesses typically fall into one of three categories:
- You overcommit, sign up for everything, and then forget about it until your subscription bill comes.
- You under-commit, either due to ignorance or a show of resistance from your team, leaving your business less productive than it could be.
- You simply don’t know what you need.
What’s more, ensuring you and your team are adequately trained on the tools you use is also essential. You cannot allow your team to use their lack of tech capability as a crutch for substandard output.
Here at LMS Advisory, we work with our small business clients to review their technology, help them understand what they need and don’t need, and utilise the tools available effectively to get the most out of every business function.
We like to think of adding technology like adding a new team member at a much cheaper price point who will work for you 24 hours a day.
If you can get each of these right, you will achieve your growth planning targets.
These are the 5 most common challenges that Australian small businesses face when looking to grow, but with the right people by your side, you can solve these pain points and achieve success.
Here at LMS Advisory, we have a deep understanding of how to address these common SMB challenges and, more importantly, what you need to do to overcome them.
October 2024 – Free Growth Webinar: NSW Small Business Month
If you’re a small business owner looking to understand why growth planning is important, the key phases of planning, as well as hear more about what you can do to enable growth in your business, then this webinar is for you.
Watch the replay of our first Webinar and discover what actions you can take to get started with effective growth planning for your small business in 2024 and beyond.
If you’re looking for more personalised help – speak to our team at LMS Advisory today.
Here at LMS Advisory, we take a comprehensive approach to accounting and business advisory, because we care about creating a holistic and meaningful financial experience for you – with you.
We take the time to get to know your business to provide you with the financial services you need today and the dependable financial advisory to support your goals tomorrow.
If you’re a proactive business owner looking for a partner who cares about your business and finances as much as you do, LMS Advisory is the firm for you.
For more information, visit our website or contact our team today.
LMS Advisory.
There’s incredible knowledge in your numbers.
We help you harness that to make powerful business decisions aimed at your growth goals.
[CM1]Link to Sept Blog 2
[CM2]To be updated
[CM3]Webinar page
