ARE YOU STILL WORKING ON YOUR BUSINESS ?
By now you have probably heard multiple times that as a business owner , you need to spend more time working “ ON your business ” as opposed to “ IN your business .” While we know that 2020 certainly made this a challenge for many business owners who were forced to dive back into the day-to-day just to survive , we also want to look ahead and throw out this concept once again .
As we ’ ve navigated through the last year and look ahead , there are a couple of areas where we believe business owners would be wise to “ step back out ” of the their business so they can focus ON it and not be IN it .
Sales Pipeline / Marketing
All of the supply chain disruption , coupled with drastic changes in consumer demand due to people staying at home , has created unprecedented manufacturing challenges and lead times for many businesses . This has led some businesses to pull back on activities related to sales and marketing due to being uncomfortable with the lead times they were faced with . While this appears to be a good problem on the surface and it ’ s nice to have a backlog of work sitting behind you , the question that comes up is : “ When do we believe this will correct itself ?” More importantly , business owners should ask the question of if they ’ ll be ready to go into this area when the time comes . Sales and marketing is an integral part of any business even when backlogs are big and lead times are long because as we learned in 2020 … we never really know what could be coming on the horizon .
Unfortunately , we don ’ t see this issue going away anytime soon . This is why business owners need to be seriously considering HOW they will be growing over the next 5-10 years . Simply increasing your workforce to increase production or service level no longer appears to be a viable or cost-effective option . Businesses will need to get more efficient in all areas and one big way to do that is look more closely at automation to help alleviate the issue of finding quality people . Whether on the production floor , in the office , or wherever , there are probably processes and tasks being completed that have a low value-add , but require a lot of time and effort on your employees ’ part . Figuring out what those are and finding ways to eliminate or automate them might just be your ticket to growth .
From what we are seeing , 2021 is shaping up to be another good year for many of our local businesses . The worst of the pandemic is behind us and the parts of the economy that were hit the hardest are on the rebound . As we continue to progress through the year we want you to continually be looking ahead and consider what might need to be done to better position your business for the future . If you ’ re unsure where to start or are just wanting to discuss with some further please reach out to one of us or any other Rea team member .
Growth
As we survey the landscape of Wayne , Holmes , Tuscarawas , and the surrounding counties , the biggest issue that continually comes up is the lack of an available workforce . Not only is hiring quality individuals tough , but just retaining the ones that you do have has become very difficult as well . We have heard many times over the past year or so : “ We could grow so much more if we could just find more people .” by : Andrew Geiser , CPA Senior Manager
212 North Washington St . Millersburg , OH 44654-1122
330.521.4562 andrew . geiser @ reacpa . com
by : Kyle Stemple , CPA , CGMA , CEPA East Central Ohio Regional President
122 Fourth St . NW P . O . Box 1020
New Philadelphia , OH 44663 330.308.6883 kyle . stemple @ reacpa . com