A report released earlier this year identified matters that are keeping business owners awake at night [1]. As is often the case with surveys and reports of this nature, they tend to confirm what everyone already knows. It’s therefore unsurprising to see staffing issues, remaining on top of technology and cyber security topping the worry list.
There’s no doubt, being in business comes with its share of challenges and how you deal with them often determines the opportunities that come your way.
For many business owners, business success now boils down to doing more with less.
Australia’s historically low unemployment rate is well reported and for reasons unknown to many of us, qualified and enthusiastic candidates for roles across the spectrum seem to have vanished into thin air.
While staff shortage is challenging, it might be a cloud with a silver lining.
Rather than being a business impediment, understaffing can force a change of direction that makes the business better and more resilient.
Streamlining operations, reviewing sales and making decisions to cut or increase products with waning or increasing popularity, focussing on efficiencies and generally fixing a multitude of minor issues, can improve productivity, profitability and create new business opportunities.
A new staffing direction may also mean reidentifying your ideal client’s profile and the type of jobs you take on. It could provide opportunity to service fewer but higher value clients.
Technology has also been slated as a key worry for business owners, and it too can be doubled-edged.
On one hand technology is an adversary, requiring constant attention to protect against scams and data breaches, while on the other, it’s your friend providing some staffing respite. Amongst its positives are opportunities to log-in to remote staffing services (often located overseas) and automating processes that can make up for your human resource shortfall.
In our experience, business owners also worry about tax and meeting government compliance regulations. As business accountants, it’s our mission to provide informed business advice that enhances profitability – tax effectively.
Achieving this requires accurate bookkeeping and accounting to establish where the business is right now and where it wants to be in the future. In the absence of financial clarity, it’s terribly difficult for a business to operate effectively and identify opportunities that include maximising cashflow, better managing expenditure, making decisions when investing in the business and tax planning in advance.
Post June 30 financial reporting provides business owners with a complete record of their business performance with the good, and not so good outcomes providing something of a line in the sand.
You can either keep doing what you’re doing and get the same results that keep you awake at night or you can do something different, improve your outcomes and get some rest.
Next Steps
We’re not suggesting radical change, although some businesses may warrant it. We do however recommend being proactive, identifying the key impediments to your business success and devising a plan over a realistic timeframe that will solve problems and improve outcomes.
Implementing change is hard work, and you’ll need support and professional advice. It’s exhausting to do it alone, and you’ll need perspectives other than your own to avoid tunnel vision and blind spots that can result in missed opportunities.
May we invite you to contact us for business advice and take advantage of our ‘professional sounding board’ which provides opportunity to talk through challenges and opportunities and to benefit from our business insight developed over 30+ years guiding business owners through the highs and lows of business.
Core Business Accountants specialise in business advice for growing and mature family-owned and small and medium-sized businesses. Please contact with us on (07) 5438 8088, email mail@corebusiness.com.au or visit www.corebusiness.com.au.
[1] https://kpmg.com/au/en/home/insights/2023/01/australian-business-leader-challenges-2023.html