5 Simple strategies for business growth in the 2022 financial year

Posted 28 Jul '21

Happy New Financial Year!

We know, a bit late but can you really blame us? It is tax season after all!

Here we are, with a fresh P&L ready to make the 2022 year a focused, positive, and profitable one.

Are you with us?

It’s been a turbulent time for small business to say the least. Yet amidst the everchanging climate, if growth is the goal we can still find the opportunities available to us. Even if it means taking it right back to the basics!

5 Simple strategies for business growth in the 2022 financial year

Create system efficiencies 

Can you create efficiencies within your business that save time, effort, money or perhaps all three?

Reviewing your operational procedures and noticing the gaps or areas that can be streamlined can present opportunities for efficiencies. Here’s some questions to help you get started:

– Are there any tasks or procedures in your business where you/staff spend more time than necessary?
– Are there any gaps in your sales processes?
– Are you capturing new enquiry details for future marketing?
– Can you improve your customer experience from enquiry to sale?
– Are there opportunities for automation?
– Are they permanent operational changes you can consider to adjust to the current climate?

Set marketing objectives 

It’s one thing to know that having an interactive website, creating content and advertising are marketing activities that should generate new business revenue. It’s another to set clear objectives around these activities based on what your goals are.

For example, there would be no point in focusing a large portion of time and resources on Google advertising if you were operating in a consulting niche and received most of your work through referral partners. Instead, your limited time and budget might generate more targeted growth if focused on expanding referral partners.

As with any growth strategy, consistency is key. When you have your objectives defined that align to your goals and budget, choose the strategies you know you can commit to.

So, what are your business goals for 2022?

Review your pricing 

This might be the least comfortable strategy, however if your prices are the same as when you started 5, 3 or even 2 years ago it could be time to do a review of your services and see if any changes should be made.

If you have increased staff salaries, pay more for materials, contractors, or just general running expenses than you did 2-3 years ago, continuing to charge a particular price/rate may affect your profit margin.

Even if you decided not to increase your prices, doing the exercise to assess your services, prices, margins, and market price comparison, can provide insight into your cash position.

Add value to your customer

If adjusting pricing makes you cringe, there might be opportunity for growth by repositioning or packaging your products/services.

What value can you add to your customers lives that may be an opportunity to provide as a new service or an add on to your current services.

Offering additional products/services can increase your average customer sale while also solving a problem for your customer that your competitors might not be.

Start by finding out what they need! Have you asked lately? No matter the industry, the reason you have a business is ultimately to serve your customers. Identifying their needs, delivering solutions and adding value will open growth opportunities this year.

Consolidate your expenses

If you haven’t already, it’s time to review your operating expenses from last financial year to identify if there are any noticeable increases to your overheads.

Business expenses that might get out of hand if not reviewed are things like:

– Subscription expenses (especially with new automation programs available)
– Contractors
– Insurances
– The price of materials (due to COVID)

…Just to name a few!

All expenses tracking higher than usual that aren’t attributed to growth, can be reviewed and potentially consolidated.

If they can’t, this is where it might be suitable to revisit the pricing strategy to ensure that your profit margins aren’t suffering from increased overheads.

How can Empire Accountants help your business growth in 2022?

We’d love to help you set some business goals and formulate a budget this financial year through our New Planning and Strategy Session.

In this session we will formulate an annual budget to allow you to understand your goals, margins, and profitability levels within your business, including:

– Identifying key drivers to your business (what are the factors that influence how you generate sales)
– Identifying breakeven point to operations (minimum amount you need to make to be sustainable)
– Identifying average pricing points and costs of services you provide
– Identifying overheads
– Identifying director wages/drawing capacity
– Identifying goals/targets/KPIs

If you’d like to learn more about our planning and strategy session, please contact us today using the form below and your Empire Accountant will be in touch!