The Three Top Barriers to Business Growth (And How Finance Can Overcome Them)
Recent research reveals that 96% of UK businesses expect to grow by 2020. That’s a very promising outlook in light of the upcoming Brexit. In our latest eBook, we offer a blueprint for every finance team that wants to put their business in the best possible shape to achieve its growth plans.
To accomplish business growth, you first have to tackle the key challenges that may be holding you back.
Inefficient processes take up valuable time. Poor visibility into data and spend means you don’t have the full picture and can’t react as quickly as you’d like. And when it comes to regulations, policies, compliance and duty of care, many businesses face an exposure to risk.
In the guide we highlight the benefits of having one streamlined and connected process to manage travel, expense and invoice, and how you may go about putting these processes in place. Based on lessons from working with thousands of customers worldwide, we offer best practice recommendations for organisations that are considering connecting their travel, expense and invoice processes to prepare themselves for growth.
Take a Snapshot
You can’t plan where you want to go in the future until you know where you are now. Look at your spend at the moment. Where is the most money spent? Which are your most frequently used suppliers? Having this information ready means you can plan growth and cost reduction more strategically. In the guide we go into detail on what to look for when taking your snapshot.
Create a Growth and Expansion Model Template
Once you understand your snapshot, create a template for your organisation’s spend management programme. This will help to better align your teams, policies and processes wherever they are. It will also help set the groundwork for future expansions. Some advice:
- Define your spend workflow and policies and apply them consistently.
- Document your accounting structure, groups, expense types and custom fields so that these are consistently applied.
- Define your auditing approach. What level of scrutiny will be applied, which areas will be checked and by which teams?
- Identify the financial reports you need to regularly pull to provide to the business and look for ways to aggregate and automate this process to save time.
If you’re struggling with any of these, your spend management provider should be able to guide and advise you.
Ensure Employee Readiness
Ensuring your employees are ready to make the move with you is the biggest step in ensuring the success of your expanded spend management solution. Just some of the aspects you may want to consider:
- Have your teams and leadership bought into the project?
- Are the right people involved?
- Are local resources available if needed?
- What will the employee support model be?
- Are there any regional or foreign market differences you’ll need to account for?
Provide a Change Management Tool Kit
No matter how positive the change will be, it’s vital to manage the process well. Put together a change management plan so your business is set up for success. You can read all the insights on preparing your finance department for business growth by downloading our eBook, The Three Key Challenges to Growth ... And How Finance Leaders Can Get Ready.
Using these best practices to plan your move to a streamlined approach to managing travel, expense and invoice means you’re equipped to manage your business growth with confidence.
If you’d like to discuss expansion best practices or talk to an experienced advisor about your growth strategy, call 01628 645 100.