As many businesses begin 2025 facing tax increases and a higher wage spend, Consider Solutions’ CEO, Dan French, explores how SMEs can futureproof themselves in these tough times.
“In the face of rising costs, putting up prices is a consideration, or you could take that hit in your margin. That means you have less money to invest to grow the business, or you’ve got to look at your recruitment and staff costs. These are not easy decisions, no matter how much experience you have.
A few pointers and questions on Customers, Revenue and Costs:
Marketing & PR
It might sound counter-intuitive in difficult times, but a lot of good marketing and publicity strategies are not high cost, and you can use existing staff to help drive incremental revenue. Your ROI could be impressive if you hit the right tone with a relevant campaign.
Customers
Do you know what your customers value the most about your offering? Now is the time to ask, making the best of your USPs and acting on the answers if it makes sense in your overall strategy.
Pricing
Which markets/countries do you sell to? Is there an exchange rate opportunity to raise prices for some markets, without raising the cost to your audience?
Promotions
Can you tempt existing customers to repeat purchase and attract first timers by increasing committed volume and total revenue for small margin cuts?
Efficiency
Always take the time to work out how you can do more, and become more productive, without hiring additional staff.
Red tape
We can often cut unnecessary red tape by taking a good look at our end-to-end processes for revenue (customer to cash), spend (source to pay), people (hire to retire), product (plan to produce) and so on. Elimination can be even more powerful than automation.
Discretionary spend
IT equipment, upgrades, subscriptions – is there anything that can be redeployed, cancelled or delayed?
Better deals
Review and renegotiate where you can. Rents, service agreements, utilities – it all counts!
Above all, approach the future with a positive mindset, because every challenge you face is faced by your competitors too. Treat the obstacles as barriers to your competition that will deter them, but that YOU will overcome and be stronger for it.”
For more information, please visit consider.biz.
