Ask the experts - Systems Check

Question:
I’m in the wellbeing industry and I am looking to expand my business by taking on more practitioners. I read your articles that talk about getting the processes and systems in place to manage growth, but what do your experts recommend I should be looking at – what are the areas that have been most important in your businesses? And did you get outside help?

Jason Baker: general manager (Australia), IBISWorld

Before expanding the first and most important thing is to understand your industry. You need to understand the direction it is going. Is it growing? At what rate? In which products and segments? In which geographic areas?

You will not be able to properly make decisions about how many practitioners, what time and in what location (your existing practice or a new site) if you do not know this information. If your own knowledge and research cannot answer this then use research reports from other providers, or engage a local consulting practice to do the research for you.

You also need understand your competitive advantage—what it is that sets you apart from the competition—and emphasise this in your marketing and planning. Remember to employ prudent financial management through the growth phase, set yourself targets and limits, and be prepared to retreat if the plans are not working rather than persisting and getting in too deep.

Gavan Ord: business policy adviser, CPA Australia

You should take advantage of engaging more practitioners to help you run the day-to-day operations of the business while you concentrate on business growth strategies. Therefore, you should focus more on working on the business, and less in the business. Don’t forget that your practitioners have a broad range of skills and experience, and can be a resource for ideas to help you grow your business. And make sure you recruit the right staff requiring less supervision time from you, enabling you to work on your business strategy.

It’s also important to ensure you have the right financial information to help you make decisions to expand your business. Financial management processes such as cash flow management and budgeting provide business owners with data on the business’s internal and external environment that is essential to making informed strategic decisions. Entrepreneurs who make strategic decisions based on gut instincts may prove successful however, such fortune is less likely to occur as the business becomes more complex and the market within which they operate matures. In other words, the better the information, the better the decision-making will be.