Technology changes and advances so rapidly that it can be difficult to stay on the cutting edge of what’s available for your workplace. When it comes to scaling your business in 2023, you’re missing out if you aren’t using recent technological advances to help make this process smoother and more efficient.
Scaling your business is a challenge. It requires balancing long- and short-term objectives, supporting a growing team, and achieving a level of organisation that you may not have needed with a smaller outfit. Here are some ways that embracing technological advances can help you scale your business this year.
Tracking and optimising your key performance indicators
Tracking the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your business is important, whether you’re interested in scaling or not. It gives your team clearer targets, identifies milestones to evaluate progress, and offers insights to improve your business.
“Advancements in automation software can bring data-sourcing and analysis to the next level,” says Shaun Hinklein, Head of SEO at Ramp, a company that’s innovating the finance world with their line of business credit cards. “Gathering a wider range of data with less effort and organising it in a modular, customisable way can provide a wealth of invaluable insights.”
Rather than spending time poring over spreadsheets or organising endless lists, use workplace automation software to collect, organise, and analyse your KPIs. This can give you a clearer view of your place in the market as you consider scaling.
Pinpointing when you should start scaling your business
Deciding when to scale your business is crucial. Scaling too quickly, too soon, can lead to collapse. If you wait too long, though, you might miss out on your window within your target market.
“The recent surge in AI-based software and applications offers businesses a better way to analyse data and understand its implications,” says Jin Young Woo, CEO of Like Dreams. “Rather than guessing or timing the market, a company should analyse KPIs in a more objective way to determine the best time to scale.”
Using AI-enhanced programs to take your company’s data and statistics and turn it into a clear, meaningful evaluation of where your business stands can make scaling more successful.
Helping you find balance between long- and short-term goals
Focusing on both long- and short-term goals is crucial as you scale. If you overemphasise short-term growth and profit margins, you can jeopardise the long-term health of your business by destabilising the infrastructure.
“Automating basic tasks and using advanced software to track KPIs can help a business manage its goals more efficiently,” says Christian Kjaer, CEO of ElleVet Sciences. “There’s simply less guesswork and less leg work involved.”
While you’re focusing on more macro, long-term goals as you scale, you can rely on software and automation tools to keep an eye on your targets when it comes to more short-term performance indicators.
Determining the right ways to grow your team
As you scale your business, you’ll be looking for new employees to join your team to manage the growing workload. But growing too much too quickly can make your business top-heavy and put it in danger.
“Human Resources Management Software makes it easier than ever for businesses to maximise efficiency and ensure their team is growing at the right time,” says Jack Carrere, CEO and Co-Founder of Prokeep, “and in the right direction.”
Not only can an HRMS automate tasks like onboarding, payroll, and attendance, but it can also help with performance evaluation and tracking the balance of skills on your team as you scale.
Minimising administrative tasks to increase productivity
Your employees will have more time in their days when you automate tasks such as progress update emails, data entry, file transfers, and other administrative tasks.
“Automating repetitive tasks streamlines a company’s workflow,” says Saad Alam, CEO and Co-Founder of Hone Health. “It gives employees more time and energy to focus on high-value tasks, increasing productivity and decreasing burnout and boredom.”
With repetitive and administrative tasks out of the way, you’ll have a clearer view of what you need from your team as you scale. This can also help you avoid unnecessary hires in the future.
Creating a replicable daily process as you scale
You’ll want to standardise your team’s workflow as you scale. It makes onboarding new employees easier, sets clear expectations, and lets the chain of command function as it should.
“A combination of automation and AI-powered data analysis can create more efficient workflows for employees,” says Patricio Paucar, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Navi. “It can help a company standardise their practices and expectations as they expand.”
With an objective, clear-eyed view of what their expectations are and what their job description entails, your employees will have an easier time embracing and understanding changes as you scale your business.
Identifying new markets or niches to expand into
As you scale your company, you need to ensure that there’s a need within the market for you to scale. AI software and increasingly specific analytics from social media platforms can help you find niches to tap into.
“Expanding a company’s market share is one thing,” says Matt Masiello, Chief Marketing Officer of BabyBuddha, a company that offers an array of products for new moms, including a portable electric breast pump. “Identifying a new market is another, and it can make the difference between successfully scaling your business and going back to square one.”
Technological advancements make it easier to see not only who your brand might be able to reach to make scaling possible in terms of increased business, but also the best pathways to reach them.
Upgrading your branding with AI software
Branding may not be number one on your list of concerns when it comes to scaling your business, but it’s a critical component of creating brand loyalty and carving out a space in any given market. This is doubly important when it comes time to scale.
“Use generative AI programs to create improved visuals for branding,” says Miles Beckett, Co-Founder and CEO of Flossy. “Better logos, typography, and graphics in a brick-and-mortar setting or on a website go a long way toward building trust with a customer base. Without that, scaling can be a lost cause.”
Generative AI can help bring unity to your brand’s offerings. It can also upgrade the visuals of your small business, making it look more professional. That way, when you start to scale, your product or services appear more trustworthy and appealing on sight.
Getting a clearer view on advertising analytics
Social media analytics are increasingly specific as technology improves. Really embracing the clarity and specificity of analytics for advertising can give you a major leg up when it comes to scaling your business.
“Tracking marketing is a cultural thing. Either tracking matters or it doesn’t. You’re in one camp or the other,” says Stuart McDonald from Freshbooks. “Either you’re analytical and data-driven, or you go by what you think works. People who go by gut are wrong.”
A social media post with hundreds of likes may feel like it’s your company’s best advertisement yet. However, analytics might show that a web ad you forgot about entirely gets the most click-throughs. Analytics are vital to scaling successfully.
Keeping information available to everyone, everywhere
Rather than storing all of your company’s data, including projects or documents that are in process, in one static location, consider embracing cloud storage systems.
“When an employee can access anything they need no matter where they are or when they need it, communication within a company improves,” says Max Schwartzapfel, CMO and Fighting For You lawyer. “It’s convenient, creates transparency, and allows larger teams to work together seamlessly.”
Cloud-based storage will make it easier for all your teams to communicate as you scale, whether they’re all working from one office, remotely, or even in new offices you’re looking to open halfway across the world.
Cutting overhead costs and improving company morale
Remote work has become an increasingly expected option in the workforce. Embracing the technological advancements that make working from home possible in a wide range of fields can cut your overhead costs as you grow.
“People are more productive working at home than people would have expected. Some people thought that everything was just going to fall apart, and it hasn’t,” says Mark Zuckerberg from Meta.
Not only can allowing remote or hybrid work keep your costs manageable as you grow more material parts of your business, but it may make your employees more productive and happier overall.
Making major corporation perks available to even small startups
Access to top-notch data used to be available exclusively to companies with the capital, manpower, and brand recognition to multiply the output of smaller businesses or startups.
“Advancements in data analysis and availability, not to mention software that automates menial tasks and the increasing accessibility of advertising at scale online, can close the gap between major conglomerates and smaller startups in terms of reach and productivity,” says Asker A Ahmed, Director of iProcess Global Research.
Using advanced software and having a better understanding of technological advancements can mean the difference between struggling to stay afloat as you scale and being able to compete with companies several times your size.
Using technology to bring your business to the next level
Embracing technological advancements isn’t just about being trendy. It shows that you understand how your business’s market is changing and that you’re able to adapt to those changes to create a more efficient, versatile company. All these things will help you as you scale your business and allow your hard work to pay off, rather than being left behind by competitors.
Featured image: Adobe Stock
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