The past few years have thrown us so many curveballs, and now it’s impossible to say what “the new normal” for business practices should be.
Where does this leave most of us? As the rest of the world starts to find its footing again, small and mid-sized businesses are still tripping up on unexpected obstacles. Getting a solid read on the most frustrating challenges is a step in the right direction.
Let’s put a name to these stumbling blocks, and then we can plan a better course of action to scale your business this year.
What challenges make it difficult to scale your company?Â
You’ve likely faced many of these evolving challenges already, but don’t get discouraged yet! Remember, every problem has a solution (whether It’s obvious…or whether we have to get a little creative!).
5 challenges facing business today:
- Finding qualified staff
- Balancing the books
- Managing customer expectations
- Adapting to technology
- Staying organized
1. Finding qualified staff
This one goes first because it seems the most obvious. When your company needs to expand, you’ll need to find staff who are experienced and qualified.
Why is this such a huge problem for so many businesses right now?
The general consensus seems to be a combination of economic insecurity and a cultural shift. Things are tight due to inflation and market instability. But not just for businesses! The cost of living is skyrocketing, and qualified candidates are turning down positions that don’t meet their income requirements.
Rent, groceries, and gas are all on the rise; which, doubled with the taste of an at-home-work life in 2020, has convinced nearly 75% of working Americans that remote jobs are the ideal. Many qualified candidates are leaving in-house positions to work IN THEIR HOUSE- even if they have to take a pay cut! However, despite this massive exodus, only about 15% of jobs in the US are fully remote… so which jobs are people competing for?
2. Balancing the books
Directly relating to problem #1 is keeping costs low while you invest in expansion. With a fluctuating global marketplace, consistency is the goal- but flexibility is the key. Naturally, you’ll carefully analyze all accounts to ensure that money isn’t being wasted, and you’ll look seriously into areas where you can cut costs.
But while cutting costs, it’s vital that you don’t cut out the resources (and employees) that keep your company humming. Working towards growth should involve pruning the decaying bits, not the green bits.
3. Managing customer expectations
As your business expands, you’ll need to make sure you’re meeting customer expectations in terms of quality, service, and products. In 2023, that means complete transparency in all stages of a transaction. Customers want ease-of-use, speedy results, and real-time updates every step of the way.
Beyond this, customer expectations may increase as your company grows. Customers may expect more from your company, including higher quality products with more competitive pricing, more efficient customer service, and better marketing. Additionally, customers may expect your company to have a better understanding of their needs and preferences, and to offer more personalized solutions.
4. Adapting to technology
Technology is constantly changing and businesses remain competitive by staying up-to-date. Otherwise, your company’s expansion will be hampered by evolving technology.
Your business needs infrastructure and personnel to handle and manage the new technology. Additionally, investing in new technology can be expensive, and this needs to be accounted for in your budget (pun intended!). Keeping up with technology is absolutely necessary for your company to continue growing.
5. Staying organized
For your business to expand, you’ll need to create systems to keep track of new customers, products, and services. Staying organized can pose a serious problem for an ever-growing list of tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities.
Additionally, managing a larger workforce may require more complex organization systems and processes. When expanding, you have to ensure that all areas of your business are managed effectively and efficiently for successful growth. Sloppy organization can lead to confusion and inefficiency, resulting in costly mistakes and delays.
iPaaS is the solution to scaling your company
The secret ingredient to scaling your company is iPaaS! Integration platform as a service (iPaaS) is a cloud-based software that can assimilate data from different sources onto a single platform.
Essentially, iPaaS is a third-party platform that manages data flow, automates transactions, and just simplifies the running of your company- no matter your company’s current size or how lofty your goals are!
1. Strengthening your staff
Using iPaaS can help you find, hire, and maintain qualified staff. With an automated and comprehensive platform you’ll effortlessly integrate data, applications, and processes. You’ll also streamline the recruitment process and quickly identify qualified candidates. Once you’re ready to bring someone on, iPaaS helps you organize and store employee data, track performance metrics, and automate onboarding activities.
The future is moving steadily towards a more remote workplace, and candidates are clamoring for more work-from-home opportunities. Open yourself up to more qualified staff while also more effectively managing employee performance and maintaining a qualified workforce! IPaaS can help you manage employees’ productivity, their HR needs, and pretty much anything else. This makes it easier for your HR staff no matter how spread out your team is!
2. Fixing your finances
As your company rearranges finances to promote growth, you’ll need to streamline as many processes as possible. iPaaS saves you time and money by automating tasks and slashing wasted man-hours.
Since all of your accounts are visible on a single platform, you’ll easily spot any leaks or errors; assuming your integration platform hasn’t already alerted you! Additionally, access to integrated data from multiple systems and sources creates a single source of truth for better analytics: you’ll make informed decisions quickly, for saving AND for scaling!
3. A superior customer experience
If you want to maintain (or improve!) your customers’ experience, iPaaS is the answer! An integrated platform that connects multiple software applications, iPaaS can create a unified customer experience that is consistent, reliable, and secure.
Your company will quickly and easily update your customer data, so you can better understand customer needs and preferences. Likewise, the data collected and reported by your iPaaS can then be used to create customized customer experiences and tailor services and products to their needs.
On top of all that, iPaaS streamlines the customer experience by automating manual processes and integrating customer service functions, allowing customers to get the help they need quickly and easily. Ultimately, iPaaS can help companies create a smoother, more efficient customer experience that meets the modern customer’s expectations.
4. Upgrading your technology
When you have iPaaS, you’ll be able to keep up with any technological advancements in the marketplace. Integration platforms allow you to quickly and easily integrate new technologies into your existing environment, securely and reliably.
B2B connections are a breeze, as a staple feature of iPaaS technology. No matter the complexity of your partners’ systems, monitoring your integrations is simple. No matter how fast marketplace technology advances, iPaaS can quickly adapt and maintain B2B and A2A integrations.
5. Organization meets integration
Staying organized as you scale and expand is a non-negotiable if you want to succeed. Naturally, you have to keep track of every business relationship, product development, and transaction. With iPaaS, you can do it all from a single platform. Jumping back and forth between programs or apps to get your ducks in a row will inevitably result in misplacing a few of those ducks! But with iPaaS, it’s not an issue.
By providing a centralized platform to integrate and manage multiple enterprise applications, iPaaS allows companies like yours to easily connect their existing applications with new ones, while keeping the data and processes organized and secure.
Beyond integration, automating processes eliminates clumsy human manual errors and streamlines communication between different applications. As mentioned before, automation saves time and money, but also improves efficiency and accuracy, so you have a more organized and efficient business.
The solution to scaling your company:Â
Are you looking for a way to scale your business?
The simple solution is CINTAP Cloud! Our innovative platform offers a variety of customized tools and features to help you take your business to the next level.
We are experts at managing your human capital, your accounts, your customer expectation, your technology, and your entire enterprise! CINTAP Cloud has everything you need to grow your business and stay ahead of the competition.
Take advantage of our cutting-edge technology today and experience the power of CINTAP Cloud!
Author – Carissa Getscher
