BUSINESS CENTS
average, 50% of time on bill pay alone. One of BILL's customers, Ascent Respiratory Care, a home health care provider that helps patients with respiratory issues, eliminated writing paper checks entirely. "We do not write checks anymore. I would say about 95% of what we do is all paid out via BILL, whether it's a hard copy check or an electronic payment," said Ascent Respiratory Care Senior Business Development Associate Heather Thompson.
Use data analysis to uncover business insights more easily: Solutions that bring efficiency and optimization to your business can provide valuable analytics that can uncover insights to fuel innovation, inform your decision-making and identify areas for improvement. Golf Genius has seen firsthand how financial analytics has provided better control, visibility and efficiency. "I believe we're saving thousands of dollars a quarter as a result of real-time budget tracking. Before [BILL], people would ask where they were against their budgets, and now we know," says Golf Genius CFO, Lou Lombardo.
By harnessing technology to optimize key foundational parts of your business operations, you can achieve cost savings and efficiency gains that contribute to your overall business innovation. For example, BILL's Financial Operations Platform for SMBs allows businesses to manage and optimize their cash flow all on one platform, delivering the most comprehensive suite of capabilities for SMBs.
4. Don't be afraid to fail forward
Innovation is inherently risky, and not every idea will yield immediate success. However, the more efficient and automated some functions or processes are, the more a small business can embrace a culture of "failing forward," where failure is viewed as a learning opportunity rather than a setback. It will help employees have the space and time to be more creative or innovative. Here's how to do it:
Encourage experimentation: As product leaders, oftentimes we tell our peers: "If experiments aren't failing often, then you are not experimenting enough". Encourage your team to experiment with new ideas and approaches, even if they come with a degree of uncertainty. Build in time to test-run the idea, with an evaluation checkpoint, before implementing it system-wide.
Iterate and refine: After an experiment, assess what worked and what didn't. Use these insights to refine your approach and try again.
Acknowledge lessons learned from failures: Celebrate the lessons learned from failures. This will encourage a culture where innovation is valued regardless of the outcome, giving business owners a competitive edge and supporting employee retention.
"Encourage your team to experiment with new ideas and approaches, even if they come with a degree of uncertainty.
Build in time to test-run the idea, ...."