Entrepreneurship

Business management: tips for SMEs

Ash Baggott

Managing a small business is HARD work. You have the weight of the company’s success on your shoulders, you’re responsible for the sales, marketing, hiring, firing, leasing, inventory, and so on. There is light at the end of the tunnel, there are ways to simplify and make small business management easier.

Whether small business management is in your bones or you’re trying to learn the basics, there’s always ways you can improve your processes. Let’s take a look at some;

Automation

You’ve probably heard it before – time is money – well, it’s absolutely true. Especially, when you’re running a small business and you have a limited amount of time to deal with the overwhelming day-to-day tasks.

One way to make your day more efficient is by taking advantage of automation. Using a system like Holded Cloud ERP system #1. You can integrate your apps and programs to track inventory, manage your accounts, organise your staff, and much more. 

Keeping track of all your information that your collecting each day can help your business tick over, but automation makes it quick and easy and frees up your time for the tasks that absolutely need a human touch.

Keep up with the times

In the tech-era we live in today, customers, clients, couriers, and your staff expect your business to embrace current technologies to make their experience better, faster, and cheaper. Each and every one of us uses mobile technology and as such, we expect to be able to connect with businesses online and/or in apps.

A key part of business management is ensuring that your business appeals to your customer-base. You should oversee that you’re running a high-quality website and offering the same or better technology than your competitors in order to stay competitive. To find out what your customers want, you should ask them, see if your meeting their needs and if not, what else could you do to improve their experience.

Delegation

Small business management isn’t always about you and the business, it also includes managing your employees effectively. Although your business is your business, or your ‘baby’, open up yourself, and don’t be too overpowering, allow others to take control of parts of your business, it can save you time and headaches.

If you have some full time employees, you can spend time training them to do things the way you like them until they’re ready to take the reigns. If you don’t, you can consider freelancers or contractors to tackle the parts of your business, you may feel uncomfortable doing, or aspects you don’t have the expertise to complete.

For example, building a great website is a hard task and it will be a lot easier to hire someone experienced rather than trying to give it a go yourself.

Keep to your budgets

Your budget is crucial for staying on track and avoiding a plummet. No matter how busy and expenses things get day-to-day, you’ll always need to be mindful of your business’s financial status to make sure you avoid any complications and remain stable. That being said, as you start to see some growth. you ‘ll want to reevaluate and make necessary adjustments to your budget.

Know your stock

When you’re selling a product or service, part of your managerial responsibilities is to manage your inventory / resources. For products, you can use an easy to use ERP management system to manage your inventory, track your sales, and also track your shipping. If you’re providing a service, you don’t have unlimited resources and employees, so you need to make sure you have enough of both to keep your customers satisfied.

Set yourself goals

In small business management, a lot of your time will be focused around the day-to-day tasks such as, checking inventory, keeping customers happy, managing your finances, etc. However, don’t let the daily struggle remove you from your long-term business goals for growth.

The best way to manage this is by setting quantifiable goals, and check in on them regularly to monitor progress. Your growth goals may reflect a certain number of customers served, a number of products sold, and other measures of success. You should write down your goals and revisit them regularly to keep your business moving forward.

Summary

Business management for SMEs involves wearing many hats and keeping your focus on many different tasks, goals, accomplishments, and keeping your customers happy. You can implement Holded’s Cloud ERP Software #1 to help you manage your business.

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