Entrepreneurs: are you sacrificing growth for flexibility when choosing digital tools?   

Discover why applying the right kind of technology is critical to flexibility as your business grows.   

It’s risky and requires a lot of work: so why run your own business? 

A recent study found that two out of three people think flexibility is the best thing about being a small business owner and entrepreneur. The ability to work when and how you want—to change and grow as opportunities arise—is clearly a drawcard. 

While more than half of the entrepreneurs surveyed said running a business has become more challenging. Three-quarters of respondents say they are less likely to lose their job or be negatively affected by AI and robots. How can they be so confident? They know the future of work is about adaptability, enabled by technology and new ways of working.

For growing SMEs, implementing a cloud-based enterprise solution like MYOB Advanced may be critical to ongoing flexibility while also helping your business to scale in a digital economy. 

Growing small businesses seek to diversify and expand online

Small business owners might value flexibility over earning potential, but generating revenue is always on their minds. You can’t expect to make more time for family or enjoy other benefits of being the boss if your business isn’t successful.

The latest MYOB Business Monitor report, which looks at key factors affecting 1,000 small businesses across Australia, shows the top investment priorities for small businesses in 2019 include:

• diversifying their range of products and services
• customer retention strategies
• selling online
• improved pricing and margins

Achieving these goals requires whole-of-organisation approaches. For example, you can’t dive into e-commerce without considering the way an online channel will affect sales and marketing strategies, customer service, inventory management and dispatch processes. The best online strategy and website marketing for great e-commerce requires back-end process to deliver goods and services to your customer on time, every time. 

You can’t launch new product lines without understanding customers and optimising supply chains—your ability to purchase materials, manage stock levels, operate cost-effective production processes and deliver on time and in full to customers.

Flexibility should enhance, not impede, growth

Many of the improvements small businesses want to make can be supported by technology.

Cloud computing and SaaS products make it easy to work from mobile devices, collect and use data, engage with customers, and access world-class IT infrastructure without excessive overheads.

However, the question remains whether entrepreneurs are creating the right conditions for agility and growth. A desire to stay responsive and work flexibly should not limit your ability to scale. 

Yet an ad hoc approach to digital strategy and software implementation can pose a barrier to real transformation. Too many tools and channels that don’t align or share data can increase complexity: without improving visibility or fundamentally changing how you deliver value.

When Gartner’s research director Jenny Beresford investigated digital transformation activities within Australian enterprises, she found just eight percent were getting results. Two-thirds of organisations were transforming in some way, but only 10 percent were evolving their business models. 

Beresford said scaling a digital business was the real test of the success. “Only a digital business that scales can materially improve the organisation’s financial performance,” she said.

Scalability looks different for different businesses: physically expansion, new product categories, an increase in production volume, a more extensive customer base. Regardless of how scaling looks for your business, poorly integrated infrastructure and approaches will be a barrier to sustainable growth.

It would help if you had an effective growth strategy combined with unified systems, workflows and processes across the value chain.

Achieve flexibility and scale with MYOB Advanced

Technology is not a cure-all. However, the right software—implemented purposefully—can help you run a faster, smarter and more automated operation, giving you more headspace to innovate, improve and find time for a life outside of work.

For this reason, enterprise solutions are increasingly attractive for businesses of any size. The new breed of cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions like MYOB Advanced offer flexibility in terms of both usability, functionality, deployment, and configuration. Solutions that were previously only available for large enterprise with big budgets and internal IT departmental resource is now available in the cloud for small to medium-sized businesses. 

The solution connects core financial, customer and supply chain information, allows you to manage projects and field service, and easily integrates with applications to support advanced manufacturing, e-commerce and more. Your data and processes are synchronised and made more actionable through reporting and BI tools.

MYOB Advanced is used by small, medium and large businesses to increase efficiency, reduce information silos, and get high-level insights needed to navigate the best path forward in a more volatile business environment.

Savvy SMB owners know that using technology is critical to achieving the flexibility they crave. However, keep in mind that ongoing success—and therefore, greater freedom—may require a more holistic approach.

Talk to our friendly and experienced consultants about whether MYOB Advanced could be a good fit for your SME.