by the UMF
There comes a point where a small or medium-sized business reaches its natural limits. For most enterprises that get through the first couple of years of start-up and consolidation the next big hurdle is often the clincher. How do you scale up the business whilst still taking an active part in its day-to-day operation and avoid getting swamped by paperwork? It’s not easy. In fact, it’s a chicken and egg scenario that puts a brake on many an ambitious enterprise. The sad truth is that the majority of businesses fail to make the step up.
There are a number of factors that serve to limit the growth that a young business can harness. The reluctance of lenders to back ventures that cannot show an established track record is only the most obvious. But, even if the business is delivering sufficient revenue to be able fund the expansion itself, there are still other elements that can be every bit as restrictive.
Key amongst them is the question of personnel management. Ordinarily business expansion equates to taking on more staff. And that is where things really start to get tricky. Personnel management, training and HR are not cost-free activities. They take time and resource out of a business. And if you are starting out with only a very limited number of personnel to start with, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Keeping talent at the coalface is key
Much as you may love what you do, sitting up past midnight with the paperwork is bound to take its toll on your enthusiasm and – more importantly – your ability to do whatever it is that made you want to go it alone in the first place. More staff equals less time for talent at the coalface. That is why bigger concerns have bespoke HR departments.
Increasingly, this all-too mundane brake on business growth is being recognised as a problem that can be addressed directly. HR specialists are developing management systems that provide flexible off-the peg solutions which can take much of the legwork out of staff management. HR software designed as a series of compatible modules that can be added to as a business expands are growing in popularity.
Flexible solutions
By tapping into the power and flexibility of cloud computing, expanding businesses are able to get all of their personnel matters (payroll, holidays, absences, performance data etc.) sorted with the minimum of disruption to the important business of generating more business. Recently nominated for the 2015 HR Excellence Awards, Cezanne HR are amongst the market leaders in the field and their emphasis on providing “a way of getting things done more quickly, more easily and more productively” will be music to the ears of anyone wondering just how they might be able to take their business to the next level. Such business-friendly providers illustrate perfectly how modern HR software can serve as a springboard for business growth.
Once upon a time ‘paperwork’ was the curse of small business. Happily, digital technology is not only doing away with much of the paper. It is also doing away with the headaches that went along with it.