With a new year comes a fresh opportunity to review how your business operates so you can finally achieve the growth you want to see.

It’s no simple task, however, and shouldn’t be undertaken without serious research, planning and consideration.

Here are some things you can do to kickstart growth.

Planning and forecasting 

Growing your business needs to be planned in as much detail as possible. 

You’ve probably made a business plan when you first started your business, so you’ll already be familiar with some of the key aspects. 

This time, though, you need to set yourself different and specific goals that define the growth you want to achieve.

One of your goals will probably be more net profit, but ask yourself what else you want to achieve? Do you want to expand your team or services? Perhaps you want to move to a new location or even open a second store?

Budgeting and forecasting is essential for trying to facilitate your expansion plan. You might not realise it, but there is a difference between the two concepts.

Budgeting is about allocating resources and funds across your business, usually on an annual basis, while forecasting is about tracking your processes monthly.

One important forecast you need to be doing is a regular cashflow forecast. After all, you will potentially be investing a lot of money into new business assets and so need to make sure you have the money necessary to keep up on loan or rent payments. 

Get access to funding

It can be difficult to invest in your business’s growth from your income alone. External funding, on the other hand, can be scary. 

But with the right approach, you can kickstart your growth.

First, there are finance options, many of which are designed to suit businesses with specific goals and/or needs.

For instance, asset finance may work well for you if you are looking for a cost-effective way to buy new assets and spread their costs over their economic lives.

If you send out invoices to clients, on the other hand, you might benefit from invoice financing, which can give you up to 95% of the outstanding amount of your invoices early.

Alternatively, you could take out a standard bank loan or take advantage of the recovery loan scheme, although you have to prove your business was adversely affected by the COVID-19 crisis to claim this.

Just know that whichever route you go down, budgeting, forecasting and planning may help to prove your case with lenders.

Talk to an accountant

There are two main reasons you should talk to an accountant about your plans for business growth.

First, we’re experts when it comes to tax and might be able to identify ways to allow your business to pay less tax.

For instance, we might take a look at your business structure and consider whether the tax benefits of from a sole trade to a limited company outweighs the costs of incorporation.

Through robust bookkeeping, we’ll also be able to keep a close eye on your expenses so we can offset each and every one against your tax bill.

But accountants know how to keep the books, create cashflow forecasts and budget a business properly. 

Even if we just take on your payroll, it means you have more time to dedicate to your business without employing an in-house team or individual.

In turn, the money we save you can be reinvested into your business to fund its growth even more.

Talk to us about your business.