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INSIGHTS
4 Focus Areas to keep your SME on the right foot in 2024
The escalating cost of living in South Africa’s recent past has significantly reduced consumers’ purchasing power, while heightened interest rates have hampered entrepreneurs’ access to essential funding. The combination of these circumstances has made 2023 a challenging year for small businesses. However, amid these formidable obstacles, owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) held onto a tempered optimism, hopeful for improvements with the dawn of a new year. As 2024 progresses, small business owners must engage in a comprehensive review of their strategies and reorient their operations to ensure a prosperous year.
Setting Your SME On The Right Path
There is a nuanced perspective among SMEs regarding their outlook for the upcoming year. While some reports indicate a decline in optimism from the start of 2023, the overall sentiment remained largely optimistic, showcasing the inherent resilience that has come to define the South African SME community.
Here are the 4 core focus areas to prioritise for 2024:
Regulatory Compliance
Operating a small business in South Africa entails navigating a complex legal landscape, accompanied by substantial administrative duties. Navigating this myriad of legal requirements is not only daunting for most business owners, but also a significant distraction from your core business focus.
A practical first step for business owners is to affiliate with an industry-specific body that oversees compliance within their sector. Organisations such as MMS Cloud Accounting can offer invaluable advice and resources to ensure SMEs remain compliant by helping them streamline the process and reduce the burden of compliance.
Employee Well-being
The last year has posed significant challenges not only for businesses but also for their employees. During periods of economic and social uncertainty, prioritising the well-being of employees is crucial, particularly in small business settings where teams may be under considerable pressure to excel in a competitive market. Small business owners are encouraged to implement regular check-ins with their employees, foster environments where open and transparent communication is welcomed, invite honest feedback, and proactively tackle any emerging issues.
Your Marketing Strategy
Reviewing the successes and shortcomings of their past year’s marketing efforts is essential! It is a treasure trove that, when analysed carefully, reveals which strategies have resonated with your audience and where there’s room for improvement. Entrepreneurs should adopt an analytical approach to make informed, data-driven decisions.
Your Data
Data provides indisputable evidence to support grounded decision making. By understanding the causal relationship between decisions and outcomes, as evidenced in your historic data, you will increasingly understand which decisions served you well, and those that did not. Ensure that you have easy access to data through your outsourced accounting services partner. Cloud solutions like Xero Accounting are a treasure trove of insights IF you can access the data and interpret it. Connect with your accounting professional to ensure a steady flow of data and insights throughout your financial trading period, so that your decision making is both grounded and robust.