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4 Steps to take when you're ready to scale your business

For most business owners, once a company reaches a stage wherein it runs smoothly, the next obvious step is to expand the business. However, a growing business comes with its own set of challenges, and there are several things to consider before making a move. First, you need to ensure that your business has the capacity and required resources to accommodate growth. Next, you may have to evaluate sales, production, customer base, profit margins, business finances, labour force and fix a reasonable target during this growth phase, and review it periodically.

When you ultimately feel like you are ready to take your business to the next level, here are four important steps to take.

Evaluate your expected sales growth for the upcoming quarter or year

Based on the supply and consumer demand, assess the sales over the past few months. Compare it to current trends, consumer sentiments and make a rough estimate of your expected sales.

Figuring out these numbers by making manual calculations can be a difficult and time-consuming task. But you can get more accurate results, by using select business solutions, such as HDFC Bank SmartHub. This digital platform features a dashboard that offers a complete view of your business revenue that is generated across payment heads. Based on this, you can make a detailed sales growth forecast. The platform also lets you review transaction history, pending dues and current payments. This way, you can better manage your stock and business accounts and accordingly, business expansion expenses.
Identify your resources

Another important step to building your business is assessing existing resources – capital, staff, infrastructure etc. - to carry out any increase in workload. Based on your business type, you may need more machines or advanced technology for better efficiency; or you could need a bigger office space and storage area. In case you don't have the available capital to make this move, you may have to consider taking a business loan. If you have a robust plan in place, this should not be an issue.

HDFC Bank SmartHub platform lets you easily avail loans for additional business requirements. All you need to do is:
1. Check your eligibility
2. Choose the loan amount
3. Apply through the HDFC Bank SmartHub portal
  
  When it comes to better technology to run your business, adopting a digital payment solution platform like SmartHub is also a smart move. As your business grows, you may not be involved in minor tasks that take hours. However, SmartHub lets you automate tasks like inventory tracking, auditing and billing. This can simplify your payment cycle and end-of-day reconciliation. Through this, besides saving time, you won’t have to hire separate staff to manage each of these tasks.
Secure your sales structure

A business truly scales when additional sales are managed with an equal or higher efficiency than before. To achieve your sales target successfully, ensure you put into place the following:
- An efficient strategy to reach out to customers: Try going digital as most customers are opting for online orders and home deliveries.
- Skilled sales representatives to convert leads into sales: Hire the right individuals. You can even outsource this task to freelancers on a project basis; this can help you cut down on costs.
- A fail-safe method to manage sales orders: This means your billing system should be well-equipped to ensure timely collection of multiple payments. HDFC Bank SmartHub, comes with integrated reports that make it easy for you to manage and track collections from all your sales.
Shift from traditional to modern ways of doing business

Sticking to old, manual methods may result in a slowdown of your business-scaling process. In an increasingly digital world, replacing outdated methods with high-functioning and cost-effective technology can be the difference in your success story. Transition to an automated system that seamlessly integrates into your day-to-day business transactions. For instance: make fund management easier with SmartHub. No matter your industry - healthcare, travel, hospitality, utility or any other, HDFC Bank SmartHub provides a one-stop solution for all your billing needs. It enables you to keep a tab on your transactions with payment alerts, thus increasing payment collection.

Smarthub also eliminates having to reach out to your various vendors for individual payments. HDFC Bank SmartHub enables you to email/SMS invoices with the payment link to vendors or partners for quick accounts tracking and record keeping. This way, you can spot delayed and failed payments.

Since most customers prefer to make digital payments instead of cash transactions today, with SmartHub, you can offer multiple payment options such as scan and pay, tap and pay (Mobile Card Swipe Machine POS), wireless card swipe, online payments (Credit Card, Debit Card and NetBanking) and UPI (PayZapp).

The decision to scale your business is an easy one; but to successfully execute it, you need to chalk out a detailed plan and make smart decisions. With SmartHub, you can digitise various aspects of your business through a simple set-up process. So sign up now and take your business to great heights.