For a business to grow, it needs to invest. But it’s important you choose the right areas to invest in.
Where you move money to needs to work for you, and you should be able to see the future benefits it could bring about. Here are the three areas you should consider investing in:
Streamlining processes
An efficient business is one that makes money, as no time is lost on unnecessary admin or procedures that typically take up employees’ time and resources. This is why if you haven’t yet looked into streamlining your processes, it’s an important area to invest in. Here are some examples of how this can be done:
- Project management system – A central system where staff can access everything they need to carry out tasks and communicate with each other is a good starting point. You could also encourage time tracking to ensure people are using their time as efficiently as possible and keep track of developments on projects in one central place.
- Linked up financial software – Managing wages and payroll effectively is important but you can make things even easier by incorporating a system that provides everything for you in one place such as your bookmaking admin, W-3 forms, and even checks.
- Inventory management – A system that automatically updates your central operations system with stock numbers as and when it is taken off the shelves reduces admin for staff, paperwork and time.
Marketing
If the business is doing well, it can be tempting to ignore your marketing. But this is an area that requires constant investment and is essential to success. You should be writing a regular blog, utilizing social media to engage with customers and working on the SEO value of your website.
Take a look at what you are already doing and what needs to be expanded on. Is it an area you can work on in-house or do you need to really invest some cash and make use of an outside expert? Investing in this area could mean anything from hiring an individual to manage the marketing side of things to working with an agency who does all the hard work for you.
Fintech
Financial tech is ever changing and it’s important a business stays on top of the latest innovation. This means investing money into new managing money and making it for your business. Cryptocurrency – think Bitcoin – is a good example of a new type of fintech dominating the market, as brands start to consider setting up their own (Kodak recently did this to help photographers receive royalties more easily). The finance industry is making continuous changes on transactions and business processes so it is advisable to learn more about FinTech and keep up with the trends. AI and voice search is another example of fintech businesses should be looking to capitalize on – Amazon and Google are already utilizing voice shopping with Alexa and Google Home. The banks are also working with Alexa so customers can find out what their balance is without having to log into an app or go online. If businesses want to keep up, they’ll need to look into how they can offer their services via these AI home systems.
Look to invest in these top three areas of your business this year and reap the rewards.
