Growing SMBs

If you’re a small or medium-sized business, chances are you’re interested in planning for growth. One of the best ways to build your business is to think and work like a larger company, whilst staying agile and flexible to offer a competitive advantage. If you adopt the techniques they use and position yourself as a firm that can compete with larger rivals, you can level the playing field and build the confidence to achieve your ambitions.

Work big to appear big

All businesses need to be efficient. But for larger companies, customer bases, staff numbers, and departments are all on a bigger scale. So they need a streamlined management system to ensure they’re integrated and functioning effectively. And by thinking big, you can do exactly the same. Implement a similar approach, and you too can consolidate your operations and run more efficiently.

Your systems work better when they’re integrated together. So, you can cut down on disruptions in production and distribution. And with sales, marketing, finance, and operations all working together, you’ll spend less time dealing with the little stresses. That means more time to focus on the big things such as aftersales service, customer retention and plans for growth.

And if all your data is in one place, in the cloud, you’ll have better insights into all areas of your business that will help you make decisions quicker. You can also cut down on costly data errors and duplicate entries, giving you a single version of the truth. So you can make quicker decisions, and be confident they’re right for your company.

We’ve all been there

All businesses start out small. Even global online retailer Amazon began in founder Jeff Bezos’s garage. But the company thought big and took advantage of the early internet boom, mailing out books to customers who wanted to purchase online. And now Amazon is one of the biggest retailers in the world – also successfully expanding into other areas like cloud computing and technology manufacturing.

Amazon attributes much of its success to customer focus. They realized early that customers were interested in choice, availability, good prices, and customer experience. By offering these elements, they were able to satisfy their customers and build a loyal base of people who came back time and again, enabling them to grow. People didn’t see them as a large or small company – just one that delivered a service.

Think big

If you think like a big company, you can operate like one. And most importantly, your customers or end users will think of you in the same terms. They don’t care what size your business is – just the quality of your products, services, and your ability to deliver.

You can offer better customer service if you’re not distracted by running multiple systems. And you can run a streamlined business with fewer disruptions by joining all your operations and automating key processes. But do affordable solutions for small to midsize businesses exist?

They do. SAP Business One is a flexible application that can be hosted in your existing infrastructure or in the cloud. You can increase what you use as your business grows, and flex it to meet your specific requirements.

It also comes with embedded business intelligence software, which you can use to produce sophisticated reports that allow you clearer insights into all areas of your business. And with added visualization tools you can create stunning graphics and explore your data like never before. So, in your customers’ eyes, you’ll be running a streamlined business as effective as any larger company.

Thinking like a big company can give you the confidence to operate like one. And by employing the same ways of working, through a cost-effective, manageable IT application, you’ll be able to offer the same quality of service, manufacturing and customer satisfaction – the key elements that will help your business to achieve its ambitions. So, think big and growth will follow.