How to Run Your Small Business Like a Large Enterprise
As your small business takes on new staff, implements new processes and expands its operations, it’s important to have a robust business system that supports this kind of growth. If your goal is for your business to grow into a large enterprise, start running it like one! Running your business like a large enterprise will help you improve productivity, cut costs and keep your business running smoothly. Here are some tips and lessons learned by the big IT operations over the years that you can implement:
Choose a business management system that is flexible and will grow with you, such as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. An ERP system integrates most functions of a business, including quoting, planning, manufacturing, sales and marketing.
One of the main reasons business owners and managers source alternative business software is purely due to growth. As a business grows and more staff are added, entry-level accounting systems like MYOB start slowing down and losing performance.
An ERP system will not slow down as you add more users, customers and suppliers. As you change a process or procedure in your business, you can change your ERP system’s workflow rules to match your company policy. I recommend you choose a powerful multi-user ERP and business accounting software solution, built for small and medium businesses. An ERP can manages each phase of a business’ workflow cycle – from stock control, sales, servicing and customer contact to quoting, invoicing, financials and reporting.
Implement a virtual office system. Becoming a (virtually) paperless office and changing manual processes into automated electronic processes can save hundreds of hours per year in administration. An ERP system allows quick access to all files and records within a business so data can be retrieved on demand. Information can be integrated across applications and shared between offices, suppliers and customers, with multiple access allowed to the same file without corruption of data.
Report like a ‘big business’. Reporting for small business often means pulling different data from a number of different systems and putting them together to form a meaningful, consolidated report. This is inefficient, cumbersome and time-wasting.
An ERP system brings all your data together and lets you customise your reports so you can see exactly what you need instantly. ERP systems provide true stock control and true costing as opposed to average costing. Reports such as “job costing”, “profitability”, “job profit”, “daily labour” and “actual time” can be extracted from a good ERP system.
ERP Systems also let you expand overseas Expanding offshore requires a more robust business system that combined accounting with work flow and operational information reporting. You’ll need a solution that could provide support with multiple foreign currency transactions, improved stock control and workflow management including stock serial number tracking.
ERP Systems help you to grow and expand At the forefront of any growth strategy is the need for more comprehensive reporting, better control of data and data management, integration of key business software functions and less labour-intensive administration. ERP software can accommodate new and existing customers across multiple sites and improve business workflow management, reporting, billing and service provision. The immediate benefits are accurate reporting, cost control, improved business processes and enhanced quality of data and information.
If you feel like your business has outgrown small business accounting software such as MYOB and Quicken, then it may be time for you to consider taking that next step to ERP. For a relatively small investment, you too can start running your business like a large enterprise.
Craig Kirby is the Marketing Director of Happen.Biz an innovative Australian ERP software company. Happen.Biz provides Business Accounting Software and ERP Solutions for small and medium businesses, offering a complete business solution that manages every aspect of the business workflow cycle.
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